post news network
Bhubaneswar, Oct 24: The small craft village of Raghurajpur, which falls on the way to Puri, is organising an ‘international cultural exchange’ programme where 10 artists from Western and Asian countries are taking part. The ‘Raghurajpur International Art and Culture Exchange’ programme, which will conclude November 17, is seeing collaboration of these artists along with the locals, where each of them share ideas about their respective artworks. In turn, the local craftsmen teach them the art of ‘pattachitra’ along with many other things.
The artists, who hail from countries like USA, UK and Japan among others, are learning the local art forms like making toys out of cow dung, papier mache, palm leaf carving, wood carving and ‘dhokra’ works.
Shirley Rimer, a sculptor from Canada, has been learning the traditional art of ‘pattachitra’ painting in Raghurajpur for the past one week. She is of the opinion that it is a difficult art since it involves great levels of designs and intricacies.
Shirley was told to visit the village, which may be trivial in size but contributes its share to the art world, by her husband who also participated in one such culture exchange programme a few years ago. “I am not a painter, but I mostly work on ceramic. So, I am planning to use the art form in my works.”
Archie Leigh Jones, a sculptor from the United States, is visiting India for the first time. He is amazed to learn that even with limited resources the artistes at Raghurajpur are capable of making beautiful artifacts. “It is really amazing that local artists make it using resources available locally. They make their own canvas using old fabrics with tamarind and chalk paste and I am happy for having learned how to make it.”
He adds: “I tried to learn stone carving, but found it very difficult. It needs a lot of patience to carve out your imagination on a piece of a stone. But, I am more interested to learn the ‘dhokra’ art, which we are going to do next week.”
A photographer by profession, Maureen France from USA is also attending the cultural programme. “Apart from learning how to make these beautiful artifacts, I am also engaged in taking some beautiful pictures of the place and various festivals that people celebrate here.”
Maureen believes that the younger generation of the village should continue practicing their traditional art from. “It is good to learn new things, but one should not forget their roots. I have seen many senior artists in the village still practicing their profession, but the young people here need to be encouraged to learn the artform.”
Some of the participants say initially they found working with cow dung ‘disgusting’. Camilla Robinson from England said, “It was really disgusting to touch cow dung, which I had never done before. But, when we started working on it, we realised that it was an easy material to work on.”
Kshitesh Chandra Das, the project director of the event said: “We have been organising such exchange programmes regularly for the past five years. Artists from abroad have time and again shown their interest to participate in our event. Our main objective is to spread knowledge about the artforms of Raghurajpur.”