Gandhi Unravelled

Starting January 30, ‘The Gandhi’ a show of Paintings, Sculptures, Installations, Live performances and Children art competition kicked off in smart city Bhubaneswar. The show is a tribute to the Father of the Nation by a group of artists who have focused on portraying Gandhi: His Ideals and Prophecy. Spanning over twenty days, the core of the exhibition was live performances by several eminent artists. At the opening, Live performance by Rabinarayan Rath drew attention of one and all. His portrayal of Gandhi within 15 minutes was exemplary. Other eminent artists such as Pradosh Swain, Stitadhi Rath, Manas Ranjan Jena, Chakradhar Behera, Chintamani Biswal, Asish Panday and Nityananda Ojha also performed live in front of a packed audience and presented a creative exploration of Gandhi’s ideals and their relevance today.

Gandhi is not confined to a man, it connotes a legacy; a legacy of truth, ahimsa, sacrifice and humanism. In a world devoid of humanism, it becomes essential to revive ‘Gandhianism’ and so serves the basic purpose of this exhibition. From a visual focus on the things Gandhi used – like his spectacles, pocket watch and walking stick to symbols that represented his ideology like the three monkeys and a pinch of salt, the exhibition is an ode to all elements that truly constitute Gandhi and convey much about his sojourn to freedom. The true essence of Gandhianism is represented in all the paintings. Further introspection into the works deeply evokes the zeal to put his ideals into real practise. One artist portrays the death of the legend amid newspaper clippings on his assassination. Gandhi’s serene image against the backdrop of news snippets expresses the truth that Gandhi is dead but his ideals are immortal. A man symbolically wearing Gandhi’s chasma carves his statue suggesting that years have gone by and Gandhian principles have become ceremonial. The painting ‘Man in White’ confronts us with a white clad Gandhi walking with his famous stick which could be construed as the artist’s growing concern with the diminishing utility of Gandhian ways of achieving peace and purity in life. In ‘Sankalpa’, the sculptor uses a Gandhi figurine that emerges provocatively to emphasize upon the need to revisit the ‘solemn vow’ as shown in Gandhi’s path to remove discrimination. Some of the paintings depict significant events in Gandhi’s life. The mood of lamentation rests in paintings such as ‘Deterioration’, where a headless Gandhi depicts the death of his values. The painting ‘Reviving Humanism’, shows Gandhi and his monkey enclosed within the modern world and suggests the need to revive Gandhianism as the call of the hour. Gandhi’s monkey is a timeless beacon of inspiration for generations to come. At the same time some of the works such as ‘Reclean the Tracks’ is concerned with preservation of Gandhi’s legacy. Interestingly, Lord Jagannath and Gandhi have been depicted alongside in a painting signifying universality as Jagannath is the God of the masses and Gandhi, the people’s leader. In one painting, Gandhi and his moral monkey have been shown looking at one another perhaps suggesting that people have become blind to Gandhian morals. An artist has depicted Gandhi bending over a ten rupee note with his image symbolising a picture of distress over India’s current degeneration. Apart from these works, other artists participating in the show have put together a thought-provoking exhibit on Gandhi.