Conveying Resistance, Superstitions, Hardships and Resilience amidst Pandemic
Since the pandemic has distrupted the lives of masses in various ways, four hyderabad artists, Aniruddha Parit, Mainaz Bano, Poushali Das and Sanket Viramgami have been creating the miniatures to convey the various moods of people and nature’s demand and putting an online show ‘New Stories in Old Frames’ organised by Dhi Artspace in Ameerpet.
In ‘Corridors of Contemplation’ Ravi paints the scenes he witnessed during this journey — a conch (indicating the superstition about pandemic), banana leaf swarming with worms (indicating scarcity), earthen pot (indicating the beginning of pandemic in summer), cardboard box (movements restricted to lockdown/relying on online shopping) and a man carrying a pot with a dead plant (concrete jungle due to deforestation).
Artist Sanket Viramgam conjures up tales by blending mythological figures and incidents from his immediate surroundings. He also uses the embroidery Kantha craft work to juxtapose patterns and textures with figures to create a rhythmic pattern.Dancing Girls’ on a large canvas gives art lovers a feel of spending a tranquil evening in a park.
Mainaz Bano draws inspiration from her hometown Lucknow. Her panels, highly influenced by Mughal miniatures, tell stories in her own style. Blending the past and the present and set in a regal setting, her paintings are quite arresting in with their visual imagery. She reminces the syncretic culture and tehzeeb of Lucknow and how Begums had built temple and dabbled in devotion in the time of yore.