Kapilas Bhuyan
‘KUNCHI’, an exhibition of prints and drawings by the artist couple Chaita Basu Jena and Ramahari Jena was inaugurated last evening at the Kamaria Gallery in Kuala Lumpur by Shri Nikhilesh Chandra Giri, the Deputy High Commissioner of India to Malaysia. The exhibition will continue there until 21st May, 2018.
Ramahari Jena, the eminent painter and his acknowledged printmaker wife Chaita Basu Jena, are a well known artist couple in Bhubaneswar. The pair is devoted to their arts and they are a made for each other couple. Their world is seemingly silent, yet bubbling with their artistic oeuvres.
The exhibition is launched courtesy Sutra Foundation, the Kuala Lumpur based artistic organization of the eminent dancer of international repute Ramli Ibrahim. At first instance I couldn’t fathom the meaning of ‘KUNCHI’, a title Ramli has come up for the exhibition. But then Ramahari explained it to me saying that ‘KUNCHI’ or ‘KANCHI’ is the Odia equal to that of a KEY. Not only that, the word ‘KUNCHI’ carries the same meaning in Malay too.
But then how ‘KUNCHI’ relates to the art exhibition of the couple?
Both India and Malaysia have well established cultural linkages over centuries. No doubt, the art exhibition is going to add one more modest cultural thread between the two countries. As a ‘KUNCHI’ or ‘Key’ opens up the whole body of levers inside the lock, the lines which are integral part of a drawing or a print, no doubt triggers the mind in lock to open up.
In his figurative drawings at present, Ramahari seemingly attempts at addressing the energy that exudes from various dancers during their performances. It is interesting to note that Ramahari himself being a visual artist, there is an attempt by him in these drawings to pay tribute to artists active in other visual mediums.
As I have been observing Ramahari growing as an artist over last 30 years, in his paintings and drawings he has a typical knack for dissecting the surface of the human body to peep into the movement of anatomies and muscles during various actions. Be it in his National Award winning paintings ‘Homage to ARMENIA – I’ or ‘Homage to ARMENIA – II’ (1989), or in his earlier figurative works in mediums like paintings, intaglios and lithographs to his present body of drawings, in almost all his works the stretch of muscles plays a vital role, which necessarily gives him the scope to delineate the details of intricate texture associated with the body movements and expressions. If one looks deep into his thought process and inquires about his source of imagination, he mentions about the German Master Albrecht Durer and the Italian Master Michelangelo as his inspiration. It is necessary to mention here that Ramahari has an uncanny strength in creating landscapes having mysterious appeal; however, he has not given his prime attention on that – though some of these landscapes are available in some private collections.
In his Present figurative drawings seriestitled Shades of Dancing Ramahari seemingly attempts at addressing the energy that exudes from various dancers during their performances. It is interesting to note that Ramahari himself being a visual artist, there is an attempt by him in these drawings to pay tribute to artists active in other visual mediums.
As I remember, Ramahari believes that one of his major works is ‘PADMA MANDAL’ which is consisting of 64 square canvases put together in an installation as according to the ground plan of the famous Konark Temple, and each canvas depicting a Nayika. (This multimedia installation work was displayed from the floor to the wall at the XI Triennale India in 2005 at Lalit Kala Akademy Gallery, New Delhi.) In this installation Ramahari has used faces of Paper Mache, Acrylic Drawings and a set of mirrors, each mirror outlined as of a human face. The intension of putting the mirrors is to reflect the face of a viewer to transform him or her as a Nayika.
Ramahari is hailed from an obscure village called Ghatakuri near Aska Town of Ganjam Distric in Odisha. He started his art education at the Govt. Art College, Khallikote, and subsequently went to the Regional Centre of Lalit Kala Akademy, Kolkata as a recipient of Research Awardee in Print Making. This had given him an opportunity to learn the process of intaglio and lithograph hitherto not much in focus in his home state Odisha.
After returning from Kolkata in 1988, fortunately enough, Ramahari had joined as the In-charge of the Graphic Studio at the then newly opening Bhubaneswar Regional Centre of Lalit Kala Akademy. He had to convince, not only the young artists, but also the seniors to visit the studio, and guide them to learn the work process of intaglio and lithography. Today, both the mediums are in the syllabus of all the art colleges in Odisha.
Another turning point occurred in Ramahari’s printmaking career in 1998 when he went to England to study Advanced Printmaking at Glasgow School of Art as a residency programme recipient under the aegis of Charls Wallace (India) Trust. This had given him an opportunity of exposure and technical expertise of world order.
On the other hand, Chaita was born and brought up in Kolkata and met Ramahari during his Research Awardee period. She had started her printmaking journey in 1980s after undergoing exhaustive training in the medium. Subsequently, Chaita and Ramahari got married out of courtship, and she had to move to Bhubaneswar.
In fact Chaita was a bit apprehensive as to how she would continue her practice in this new environment. But Ramahari put an instant end to her apprehension by saying that he himself had newly set up a very well equipped printmaking studio in the Regional Centre of the Lalit Kala Akademi in Bhubaneswar. It no doubt gave her the much needed succor.
Over the last twenty-five years Chaita has been constantly and silently working at the Lalit Kala Akademy Regional Centre, Bhubaneswar as if it’s her second home. She is an avid observer of her surroundings, and expresses her reactions in her intaglios. The small town Bhubaneswar then and the way its natural resources rapidly depleting now is one of her major concerns.
She is a recipient of many awards and accolades both at national and international levels. Fifty Years of Indian Golden Jubilee Award, AIFACS 1997 and Gold Medal in 1st Egyptian Print Biennale, 1992 are just two out of those awards to mention here.
She recreates the nature around her, and every other object she encounters, like a bird perched on the tree, a pet at the doorstep, a fish swimming in the water, a flower blossoming in the garden, etc. are the pictorial elements for her prints.
“Today, when I look back over the last three decades or so, I understand that printmaking has given me the opportunity of double discovery, the discovery of the pictorial sense and the artistic self in me. The long monotonous process involved in printmaking brings joy when it makes revelation not anticipated earlier”, Chaita happily expresses her artistic experience through her practice.
(Kapilas Bhuyan is a Senior Journalist, Critic and National Award winning Filmmaker in India)
