Art is what drives them and what brought artist couple Helen Brahma and Shovan Kumar together. While Helen has carved a name for herself in Odisha art through her beautiful textile paintings, Shovan is popular for his ceramic sculptures and paintings on varied themes, be it globalisation, nature or livelihood.
The couple recently put up a collective show titled ‘The Chain of Being’, showcasing Helen’s ‘Vahana’ series and Shovan’s ‘The Truck Project’ at the art gallery of the Biju Patnaik International Airport in Bhubaneswar. The duo chose modes of communication—ancient and modern—as their collective theme. However, their styles were different. They showcased more than 20 work-pieces at the exhibition.
For the past decade, Helen has been painting figures related to the mystical Chausathi Yogini temple at Hirapur, on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar, representing different incarnations of Devi using Odisha textile patterns. The temple represents the Yogini cult of Tantra that flourished in Odisha between the 9th and 12th centuries. While in her previous paintings Helen drew 64 Yoginis of Chausathi Yogini temple on Tassar sarees to bring out the element of womanhood in them, she concentrates on Vahanas (vehicles) of the 64 Yoginis in her latest body of work.
“The series titled ‘Vahana’ comprises drawings of animals and birds that form the rides of the 64 Goddesses in the Chausathi Yogini temple, be it an owl, an eagle, an antelope or a buffalo,” she says. She decks up all the creatures with Odisha textile patterns to show the richness of Odia heritage and culture.
Helen mostly focuses on Sambalpuri textiles in her works. The artist, who likes working on the feminine form, has been using the textile patterns since 2004 when she first drew a series of paintings based on Chausathi Yogini. “The paintings were appreciated throughout India. Since then, I haven’t been able to decorate the subjects of my paintings in any pattern other than Odisha textiles,” says Helen.
In one of her ‘Vahana’ works, she paints a grazing rhinoceros in an Ikat saree pattern. While she decorates the body of the animal in black floral motifs, its head is coloured bright pink with golden border on the horn. The result is a ‘Devi Vahana’ in a fascinating ensemble.
Shovan, on the other hand, focuses on transportation from the perspective of globalisation. The artist, who is a keen observer of the changing environment and society, has been creating paintings and sculptures of trucks as a means of transportation in the modern day under the series ‘The Truck Project’.
One of his most striking creations for the exhibition was an eight-foot-high painting of a truck carrying wooden logs in the backdrop of a burning forest. The work—The Load of Fire—was a commentary on the impact of globalisation. “These days, trucks carrying wooden logs from forests are a common sight on the roads, which points to the depleting forest cover in the wake of urbanisation,” Shovan says. The large painting was accompanied by a ceramic sculpture of the truck with logs. What inspired him to begin this series were the mineral-laden trucks that made frequent trips from the mining belts of Odisha till a few years ago. “In a way, these trucks are the Vahana for both economic growth of my state and the degradation of its environment,” he says.
The two artists, who are alumni of BK College of Art and Craft in Bhubaneswar, are currently planning to start an art centre called Kanti Centre for Art.
