It was still spring and the
lukewarm weather of North Bengal came as a welcome respite for Norwegian Eivind
Falk and his two British companions Robin Wood and his daughter Jojo Wood.
Walking down a dry mud track of Kushmandi in the district of Dakshin Dinajpur on
a March afternoon in 2017, Robin said that the temperature at his home, a few
miles from Birmingham, would be around minus four degrees Celsius at that time…
“and it’s very, very wet too, with a constant drizzle and wind,” said Jojo.
Eivind was smiling… after all he was here before — in 2016 to be precise.
The West Bengal government’s
Department of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises & Textiles (MSME&T)
had developed 10 Rural Craft Hubs (RCH) with 3,000 traditional handicraft
artists in nine districts of the state between 2013 and 2016. The initiative
was undertaken in partnership with UNESCO and the main purpose was to conserve
and revive different forms of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) of West Bengal.
In February 2016, a 14-member team of international experts visited the RCH
hubs for project-related consultation and Eivind — the Director of the
Norwegian Crafts Institute — was part of that team. They visited the Wooden
Mask Hub at Kushmandi and Eivind was highly impressed with the craft and the
artists. His interactions with them sparked off the idea of future
collaborations. It was during that visit that he conceived the idea of a
skill-sharing workshop between the Master Class Artists of Kushmandi and
Greenwood craft artists of Europe. Things took a concrete shape when Eivind met
Shankar Das, an eminent Wooden Mask artist of Kushmandi who went to the UK to
participate in the London Craft Week later in 2016.
So here was Eivind at Kushmandi
again! And this time he had come with Robin Wood, another internationally
recognized traditional woodworker, and Jojo, a second-generation Greenwood artist
from the UK. They had come to participate in a collaborative three-day workshop
on Wood Carving with traditional Wooden Mask Makers at Mahishbathan in Kushmandi
(March 17-19), followed by an exhibition of the products created at the
workshop and another workshop, this one with teenagers and youths, in Kolkata
(March 21-24).
For the uninitiated, Greenwood
craft is a special form of carpentry where artists work on unseasoned or ‘green’
timber to create a wide range of products — from traditional masks and wall
hangings to utilitarian objects like bowls and spoons. Greenwood being much softer
than seasoned timber is also easier to shape with hand tools.
The interface between the
European trio and the artists of Kushmundi — most of whom are used to making
masks for the local Gomira folk dance form and mythological characters, gods
and goddesses like Shiva, Kali, Durga and Asura — was an unprecedented and rewarding
experience for both the teams.
While Eivind, Robin and Jojo
marveled at the pieces of woodworld wonders in this part of the world and were
enriched by the Kushmandi artists’ canvas, repertoire and traditional skills,
including their exquisite quality and intricate details, the four Master Class
artists of Kushmandi who participated in the workshop — Shankar Das, Tulu
Sarkar, Nandi Sarkar and Dipak Sarkar — got to know and work with advanced
tools and equipment used in the West and caught a glimpse of a completely new
range of products, styles, designs, techniques, textures, colours and skills.
The four local Master Class
artists were chosen after much consideration. Shankar is a recipient of the
State Award and his works are on display at the CIMA Gallery in Kolkata. He
participated in Gannat Festival in France in 2015, and his works were showcased
at an exhibition titled ‘Gods & Demons’ at the Nehru Centre London in 2016,
apart from Edinburgh Museum and Southside Fringe Festival at Glasgow.
Tulu is a promising young artist
who has travelled to several Indian cities with his works and participated in many
fairs and festivals. He is an active member of the exchange programmes held at
the Kushmandi Wooden Masks hub and has students from several design institutes.
Dipak is an artist who has evolved over the years, winning much appreciation
and accolades. Meanwhile, Nandi is an artist by his own right. He is renowned
for his amazing skills in depicting female figures in the masks that he makes.
The cross-cultural experience
also included an introduction to the two types of local timber used in
Kushmandi — Gamar and Mahogany. This evoked much interest among the visitors.
All of them work essentially with apple, peach and pear. Robin, in particular,
had worked in forestry before becoming a woodworker and studied North Bengal’s
trees and woodlands with avid interest all through the visit.
Getting started at the workshop,
Eivind showed his wooden spatula, fruit knife and butter knife and went on to
make some of them. Robin showed his skills in making wooden bowls, while Jojo
carved up wooden spoons with smooth surfaces and edges.
Shankar, Tulu, Dipak and Nandi
showed their skills with traditional tools and taught the visitors the art of
making the masks used in Gomira dance. Overall, it was an exciting, creative,
both-way learning process that included a fruitful exchange of ideas and
skills.
Summing up the experience, Shankar said, “New tools and
new ways to craft are among the best things we learnt from this workshop.” Tulu
said, “This workshop has opened a new chapter for our craft.” Taking a cue from
him, Dipak said, “We learnt to make so many new things… we want more such
workshops.”
Reflecting on the Kushmandi workshop, Eivind said,
“Working here, out of comfort zone, was a challenging one, especially working
with different tools and materials, doing things differently… but it was a
wonderful way of growing! These artisans of Kushmandi have a high performing
level.”
“One of the highlights of my experience here in Kushmandi
has been the opportunity to make the masks with these great craftsmen… it was
very special… and yes, we all enjoyed Mukha dance,” said Robin.
The visit also provided the three
Europeans an opportunity to know the lifestyle of the local artists. This
included a tour of the village and the village market (haat), the homes and studios of local Bamboo Mask Makers, and a
brush with some historical documents on the masks of the region.
They also visited Bangarh and Sami Briksha. Bangarh is known for a mound of ancient ruins on the
left bank of the river Punarbhaba, a tributary of the Ganges. Several
terracotta tiles, stone pieces and fragments dating back to the days of the
Maurya Empire (322 BC – 185 BC) were excavated from the place by the
Archaeological Survey of India. Folklore has it that these were part of King
Bana’s palace during the times of the epic Mahabharata.
Sami Briksha also has reference to Mahabharata.
The Pandavas, during their exile, were believed to have hidden their weaponry in
the huge, imposing tree that is the Sami Briksha.
On the way back from Bangarh, the
visitors stopped at Gangarampur to see how cotton sarees are made and had a
glimpse of Bengal’s traditional art of weaving, dyeing and colouring fabrics.
Incidentally, the European trio’s
first brush with local folk elements in Kushmandi was a Chodor Bodor (a folk puppet show) performance by Daman Murmu, a
living legend of the art form. Eivind, Robin and Jojo were left awestruck by
the skill of the puppeteer, his maneuvering of the puppets and singing. It was
a mesmerizing experience. They were also treated to an evening of Gomira folk
dance, a rich tradition of the region.
In Kolkata, the eclectic
creations produced at the Kushmundi workshop were put on display at the Carve
Out Exhibition at MakersLoft on March 21 and March 22, 2017.
The three-hour workshop with a
group of lively teenagers and youths at the same venue on March 22 was an
enthusing one for Eivind, Robin and Jojo. The presence of several girls lifted
the spirits of Jojo in particular. She had noted, with much sadness, the complete
absence of women artists at the Wooden Mask Makers cluster in Kushmundi.
There were 32 participants at the
workshop that was open to 15 to 25-year-olds. The majority of them were school
students. There was no entry fee. It was a completely new and refreshing
experience for the youngsters, and the occasional cuts and bruises suffered
while maneuvering with the sharp-edged tools failed to scale down their
enthusiasm.
At the end of the day, Eivind
summed up the weeklong experience quite succinctly as he said, “This was an
amazing exchange of knowledge,” even as Robin and Jojo seemed to crave for
more, with Jojo saying, “It was a brief encounter… a brief taste… but we wish
to return for a longer duration, and soon!”
The workshops and the exhibition were organized by the British Council
at Kolkata, the Norwegian Crafts Institute, and banglanatak dot com. The venue
at Kushmundi was the Rural Craft Hub (RCH) Community Centre at Mahishbathan.
The exhibition and workshop in Kolkata were held at MakersLoft, Himadri
Apartments, 22, Ballygunge Park Road.
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