Sunday September 20, 2009
Sensual and sacred
By ANDREW SIA
Two contemporary artists draw inspiration from an ancient storehouse of traditional culture.
INTIMATE PROVENANCE
Sutra Gallery, till Oct 5
THE word “keling” is regarded as derogatory in Malaysia. But long ago, it actually referred to a highly cultured state in eastern India.
Nayika with parrot is a metaphor of the amorous dalliance between the sexes. “Orissa, once known as Kalinga (from whence derived the generic word ‘keling’ in South-East Asia to denote people originating from India) was an ancient kingdom defeated by Emperor Asoka in a bloody battle that made him so remorseful of war that he later converted to Buddhism. Orissa has always been famous for its richness in utkala or the arts,” states a Sutra Gallery leaflet on the exhibition, Intimate Provenance.
Ramli Ibrahim, Malaysia’s renowned Indian classical dancer, is the man behind both Sutra Gallery and the Sutra Dance Theatre.
“In Orissa, I find that it’s not just about dance. Painting, crafts, literature and sculpture all feed dance,” he says, subtly moving his taut body and strong, long fingers to add weight to his words.
Ramli, who has often visited that Indian state over the past 30 years to research and perform the Orissan classical dance called Odissi, says that in Asian culture, art forms are “very inter-related” whereas in the Western contemporary sense, they are placed under separate categories.
“All the arts are about rasa, the emotions that are stirred in us. When people come to Sutra to watch classical dance, they are inspired and want to take home a piece of dance with them. At Sutra Gallery, the paintings we have intimately explore the body of the dancer.”
Intimate Provenance features two emerging contemporary artists, Dr Dillip Tripathy, 45, and Arun Jena, 40. It is the last of Sutra’s Orissa series, after exhibitions in the last few months by artists such as Dinanath Pathy, Ramahari Jena, Soubhagya Pathy and Kishore Sahoo.
Dr Dillip Tripathy is a scholar and art historian who has ventured into contemporary painting. Dillip’s works on sensual eroticism draw from traditional metaphors of nayaka/nayika (hero/heroine) and Radha/Krishna (loved/beloved). On the other hand, Jena’s paintings portray the various incarnations of Vishnu, replete with animal motifs.
At the gallery in Kuala Lumpur, Dillip explains that his paintings are inspired by an ancient Indian love manual.
“It’s called The Amorous Delight, a ninth century manuscript commissioned by a King Amrusatak and illustrated in traditional palm leaf drawings that originated from my village in South Orissa.”
“The king had 100 wives and concubines and the book has 100 postures. The (more famous) Kama Sutra only has 64 positions,” he smiles.
Of course the eroticism of his paintings is a stylised allusion of the manuscript’s carnal “positions”; he uses a parrot (as a man), which attempts to woo a shapely woman.
“The parrot examines, moves around and sometimes pecks,” adds Dillip, who holds a doctorate in Art History.
Another symbol he uses is the crow. “It’s a messenger in Indian mythology. When it calls loudly, it’s a sign that something positive is coming.”
Dillip is also a writer and scholar at the Lalit Kala Akademi in New Delhi. He wrote Visual and Performing Arts in South Orissa, which describes how the literary, performing and visual arts are integrated in that region.
His contemporary paintings are in vivid, yet their roots are in traditional Orissan art. They resemble temple wall carvings that usually show the profile of the face, but the eyes are looking in front, at the viewer.
This combination of side and front perspectives, seem to be rather similar to that seen in ancient Egyptian figures.
“I have taken stylised anatomy from temple sculptures and palm leaf illustrations and given them my own creative interpretations.
Desire is inspired by The Amorous Delight, a ninth century Orissan manuscript similar to the Kama Sutra. Arun’s works depict the various incarnations of the deity Vishnu – a fish, tortoise, boar and Narashima, the man-lion. They are done in the style of Orissan palm leaf paintings, with delicate details on the figures.
Arun, who holds a master’s degree holder in graphic art, teaches at a college in Orissa. Both he and Dillip were born in South Orissa.
“The region is a potent storehouse of traditional Orissan culture,” says Dillip. “There are temple wall paintings and palm leaf illustrations, compelling songs and literature by medieval poets such as Upendra Bhanja, rich folk drumming traditions such as mardal and mukha veena, as well as painted pots, playing cards and sacred banners crafted the traditional way.”
Indeed, Dillip and Arun draw inspiration from a rich heritage which seems a world away from whatever derogatory allusions Kalinga, the old name for Orissa, may have.
■ Sutra Gallery is at 12, Persiaran Titiwangsa 3, Kuala Lumpur. Hours: 10am to 5pm daily. Call 03-4021 1092 or e-mail sutradancetheatre@yahoo.com.
Source:
RSS
