The forest eye

Shyam told us that he could strongly relate to the tale,especially the manner in which the mermaid exchanged speech for love.To him,that was the way most adivasi people feel,when they arrive to make a living in the city,and realise that their words and ways of talking are robbed from them, says V Geetha of Tara Books,a Chennai-based publishing house which produces exquisite hand-made books.

Shyams mermaid story is a vibrant narrative of colours. Colours made from dyes mixed with earth figure prominently in Gond art and are used to decorate huts in tribal villages. I have used a lot of reds and reddish hues to convey a womans strength. The story is uncannily similar to a womans struggle for recognition in a parochial country like ours, says Shyam.

Tribal art is exploring new,contemporary frontiers through platforms like Tara Books. Artists like Shyam,Durga Bai Gond,Radhashyam Raut,Moyna and Joydeb Chitrakar Patachitra have had their works published in Spanish,Catalan,Portuguese,Dutch,Italian,French,German,Japanese and Korean.
Our art was predominantly about folklore passed down through oral tradition. But we understand the needs of thge day and are trying to explore ideas that are relevant now. Publishing,therefore,helps take our art to people overseas who are not aware of indigenous arts, says Joydeb Chitrakar 40,a Patachitra artist from Daspur in West Midnapore in West Bengal.

Patachitra is a form of art that thrived on folklore painted on a scroll and sung by the artists. Chitrakar hails from a dwindling clan of artists who would make a living out of painting scrolls and travel through villages,telling stories through their songs and paintings. Learning this was a way of life. It was not formal education but we grew up knowing this was what we would do the rest of our lives, says Chitrakar. With time,artists have graduated to themes more relevant to this time. In the pages of Tsunami,a book painted in the form of a scroll,devastating tidal waves become a monster swallowing entire villages. The artwork by Chitrakar and his wife Moyna is striking. Rather than doing books that spoke about tribal art,we wanted to do books where their art spoke to the world,to different texts,audiences, says Geetha.

One of the most interesting experiments is The London Jungle Book Adelphi,2004 by Shyam,which grew out of his experience in London,where he had been invited by a restaurant to do up its interiors. They didnt speak my language,they didnt dress my way,they ate strange things it was as if I was in the midst of a fairy tale unfolding around me, says Shyam. His observations of city life,done through Gond paintings,are humorous and full of wonder. London turns into a fantastic jungle inhabited by many gigantic creatures. The Big Ben is fused with the rooster that tells villagers time,the super-fast British tube takes the shape of a slithery snake.

Ramesh Hengadi from Bapugaon,a small town 120 km from Mumbai,however,sees publishing as a way to introduce our own country to the nuances of tribal art. These books take it beyond the interest of just art connoisseurs. And when you introduce a subtext,it usually appeals to more people than just art can ever reach, says the 33-year-old post-graduate in rural developmental studies. Hengadi lost no time in taking up Taras offer to work on a book ,Do!,that pictorially introduced children to the basic English verbs. Warli art,which Hengadi has inherited from his forefathers,specialises in line drawings that usually depict the daily engagements of the tribe. Children were particularly fascinated by the fact that a picture done the Warli way showed a slice of their world without having to use a camera, says Geetha.
Be it London or a Hans tale,the world as seen through the work of these artists is a place of wonder.