(From left) Artists Rathin Kanji, Subodh Roy and Biswa Basu at the dokra workshop

It was like old wine in a new bottle for the 30 artists who tried to gave shape to modern forms using an age old art form. Artists and sculptors like Tapas Sarkar, Subodh Roy, Rathin Kanji, Barun Pramanik, Jayanta Naskar, Partha Roy and others got together at a residential workshop on dokra art from January 7 to 15 at Shilpalatika in Konnagar.

Conducted by Reflection of Another Day, an artists group based at Konnagar, the workshop was organised to promote dokra art, that is more than 4,000 years old. Along with the artists was an artisan, Mangal Karmakar, from Dariapur in Burdwan district, who provided tips to the artists about dokra. About 70 sculptures were made by the artists at the nine-day workshop. “The main work was for five days when the artists had to mould the clay and cast the form in wax. Although the sculptures are yet to be finally cast, the sculpting part is complete,” said Partha Roy, a member of Reflection of Another Day.

The final products will be exhibited at the Rajya Charukala Parishad fair to be held in February at Rabindra Sadan.