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| An artiste leads the procession in Guwahati on Monday and model houses on wheels. Pictures by UB Photos |
Feb. 20: Love for one’s roots and the fear of being displaced took off on wheels in an art project in the city today.
Passersby stopped to stare when a man dressed in the traditional Assamese gamosa and with folded hands, led a procession of various models of houses.
Artists from the city and different states participated in the procession, displaying their projects to popularise visual and performing art among the public.
The procession began on the premises of Jyoti Chitraban in Kahilipara and culminated with the artists handing over the materials used in creating the models to the underprivileged people residing on the banks of the Brahmaputra in the Uzan Bazar area.
Veteran artists Dilip Tamuly and Kishore Kumar Das were also associated with the project.
While one model portrayed an urban home where material aspects gain precedence over human emotions, the second portrayed the dilemma of a man who loses his home.
A third dealt with the Sufi concept that the soul resides in the human body.
Another depicted the social structure and norms that people have to adhere to.
Finally, the fifth represented how an actor’s body is home to various characters, which he portrays on stage.
“Our basic aim is to allow the public a chance to understand art in its different forms. In this particular project, we took homes as our topic and wove different themes around it through the models we created. We have tried to portray realistic themes like displacement of people when they lose their home and land for varied reasons. These people have nothing to call their own except the loving bond they share with their family. At the other end are the urban concrete homes, where people are so busy chasing their dreams and making money that they hardly have time to spend together,” said Samudra Kajal Saikia, the artist who led the procession.
“Although I have been associated with art, I have never worked as part of an unusual concept like this. This has been a great experience as this has helped me understand art better,” said Anuradha Upadhaya, a painter from Vadodhara.
“We started working on this project since the past two months and veteran artists, art critics as well as students from the Government Art College are involved. Several artists from New Delhi, Vadodhara and Calcutta also volunteered to join in. We made the models from materials like hay, bamboo, tin sheets and corrugated paper sheets, which we distributed among poor people after the procession ended. These people are also displaced in the sense that they have no permanent roof over their heads. These materials will help them to at least build a temporary living arrangement,” said Saikia.
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