Radhakrishna Bandagadde, from Shimoga district, Karnataka, is a unique artist. He practices the dying technique of Hase Chitra mud paintings, created to celebrate festivals and weddings. “We place the mud in a pot of water in the night,” says Radhakrishna. “The next morning, the sand and stones have settled down at the bottom. We take out the ‘cream’, add glue or Fevicol, and then draw on paper, using a blade or our fingertips as brush.” The results are striking: goats, leaves and flowers in brilliant shades of ochre.
There were many such unique artists and their creations on show at an exhibition by A Hundred Hands collective at David Hall, Kochi, recently. It’s a non-profit trust set up by Bangalore-based sisters, Mala and Sonia Dhawan. “We are trustees of a women’s farmer group called Vanastree, which is based in the hill station of Sirsi in Karnataka,” says Mala. “They were struggling to sell their organic produce. So, five years ago, I asked them to display their wares in the garden of our house, off MG Road in Bangalore.”
The response was very encouraging. “Many people came and bought stuff,” says Mala. “Soon, individual artists and groups came and met us. I realised that there was a need to provide a platform for small artists to showcase their work. That was the catalyst.”
One of the star attractions of the collective is Ram Soni, from Alwar in Rajasthan, who practices Sanjhi paper art, another dying technique in which a piece of paper is folded several times, cut across the folds in myriad shapes and sizes, and then opened to reveal beautiful, symmetric patterns. “It took me 25 years to master this skill,” he says. “My family may be the only one practising this art form in India.” Standing behind a table at the exhibition hall, he picks up a piece of paper and deftly runs his small pair of scissors over it. When he holds it up, quite magically, an intricate pattern of a temple with a high roof, thick pillars and narrow, conical arches, appears. “This is the temple at Vrindavan, Mathura,” he says. All around him are paper cuttings of tigers, plants, trees, birds, and Lord Krishna.
Other items on display and marketed by the collective include recycled paper products like notepads pens and bags, balms made of beeswax, cocoa and mango butter, carpets, clothes and cushion covers, made by Adivasi and Dalit women of central India, crochet earrings, necklaces, and fashion accessories, apart from miniature Mughal and Gond paintings.
The collective was set up as a non-profit in September, 2010. “We called it A Hundred Hands because it’s a collective, and also because the products are all handmade,” says Mala. “The criterion for membership is that the work should have a contemporary edge.” Even if it’s traditional art, they ensure an evolution in form to make the items attractive to today’s urbanites. So Mala told Bandagadde to stop thinking of wall paintings. “There’s a limit to the number of people who would commission him to paint their walls,” she says. “I had an old trunk and asked him to paint it, to use as a coffee table. He did quite a few—which can be placed in any modern living rooms. The essence, of course, remains the same.”
There are 40 members in the collective. And they have held a few exhibitions in Bangalore. The latest, a couple of months ago, generated sales of `26 lakh. “All the money goes to the artists,” says Mala. “There are no middlemen or commissions in our collective.”
Says David Hall curator Padmini Krishnan: “The response of their first exhibition in Kochi was heart warming. Many people came back again and again. They enjoyed interacting with the artists.” Incidentally, the accommodation and travel of the artists were sponsored by the CGH Earth Group, the owners of David Hall. Says Managing Director Jose Dominic, “The corporates are supposed to only make profits, but we do have a social responsibility. When you fulfill that, it adds another dimension to the company. You are looked up by your customers, employees, and the wider community. All of them see you in a different light. And this increases our brand value.”