Of Monkeys & Lost Heritage, an exhibition of recent works by Durga Prasad Chaganti and Ravi Kumar Chunchula, is ongoing at Delhi’s Arts for All (A4A).
As part of Delhi Art Week’s first edition, the show is curated by gallery founders, Puja Bahri and Archana B Sapra. Sapra, in a conversation with The New Indian Express, says the exhibition is a jugalbandhi of Ravi’s theatrically infused paintings and Durga’s skillfully crafted multi-media sculptures.
“Both artists, hailing from Southern India, delve into histories and heritage. Ravi uses mythology and miniature imagery using mineral colours on rice paper to talk about current affairs and society, whereas Durga brings together an assimilation of the pop and the relic, old and new, crafts and arts, science and skills, in his varied cultural conundrum.”
The rendition is not new for Ravi. “Since childhood, I have been interested in observing humorous acts all around me by both people and animals. The observations became strong with influences of narratives like Panchatantra and the dohas of the 16th century philosophers. And now recently, politics and sociological developments have also been included!”
As per Chaganti, heritage monuments were the all-time treasure to witness our ancestors’ science and technology; while heritage means not only monumental constructions but also the early culture of the people from where we came to present lifestyle.
“So, I believe that it is compulsory for all of us to know the starting roots of our current civilisations,” he says, while adding, “Thus intentionally, I am working about to elaborate this subject in certain ways and comparisons to find out several possibilities and probabilities in visual language.”
Reflecting on his practice, he points that the journey of this process may contain experimentation on the visual traditional forms through an ancient lost-wax method of Dhokra Casting within possible materials. “Most of my sculptures are three-dimensional miniatures that visualise the traditional cultures of various religions. But for this show, I started working on the subject of temples and their architecture, through which our ancestors reflected their spiritual culture and beliefs,” he signs off.
At: W-114, Greater Kailash II, New Delhi 48 Till: April 13