Food for art

Sivasagar, Feb. 15: Nine artists from Assam, Tripura and West Bengal will take up welding and grinding machines to mould junk metal into works of art at a seven-day regional camp on scrap metal beginning here today.

The scrap metal will be supplied by ONGC at the workshop organised by Lalit Kala Akademi, Calcutta regional centre, and Rangpur Kala Bithika, Sivasagar, at the residence of late Bimala Prasad Chaliha, former chief minister of Assam, here.

“This is the first of its kind workshop being held in the Northeast and while one or two of the artists have worked with junk metal before, the others are all first-timers,” Sujit Barua, assistant general secretary of Rangpur Kala Bithika, said.

Artists attending the camp from Assam are Sonaram Nath, Jayanta Dhekial, Dhan Singh Basumatary and Pallab Mishra, those from West Bengal are Sudam Sumant, Santanu Chatterjee and T. Debashis Patro, and from Tripura Deepika Saha and Utpal Choudhury.

Choudhury, who comes from Udaipur in Tripura and is visiting Assam for the first time, said he had earlier worked with stone and wood and this would be his first attempt with scrap.

Two high-powered welding machines, threading machines, cutters and grinding machines have been set up at the venue for the artists’ use. The scrap has been collected from ONGC and cycle shops.

Benu Mishra, a renowned artist of the state who inaugurated the camp, said the Ahom monuments — Rangghar, Karengghar and Talatalghar — here could all act as inspiration for the artists. He also called for proper preservation of ancient artefacts so that they could stand as testimony to the art and culture of those times.

Sivasagar deputy commissioner Jatindra Lahkar, who is the president of Rangpur Kala Bithika, said the administration had plans to display these works of art at a central location here. “We will most likely place these in a park so that everyone can see them but which park is yet to be finalised,” he added.

Usually, the Lalit Kala Akademi buys paintings and sculptures created in camps and workshops of this kind and then exhibits these in different places. But because of the heaviness of metal and large size of what will be made, these cannot be lugged about and will have to be left behind.

Saleha Ahmed, an artist from Jorhat who is attending the camp, said creating art from junk was a new thing for the people here. There is a lot of scrap lying around and upcoming artists and sculptors who cannot afford costly material like wood, stone or other metals like copper or brass could be inspired to create art from waste.

Litterateur Imran Shah, a recipient of the Assam Valley Literary Award, who attended the inaugural session as chief guest, said there was a link between art and literature.