Reinventing Sacred: ‘Darkness’ as a Sign of Tribal-spiritual Yearning in Pardhan-Gond Painting
Publication information:
Abstract
While the category of 'Sacred' relates to the self-manifesting, affective 'reality', and collective rituals separating it from the everyday 'profane' world, the idea of 'spirituality' refers to individual or community journeys often expressed through inventiveness and creativity. Pardhan-Gond paintings, created by the Pardhan clan of the Gond tribe in Central India since the 1980s, reflect a deep tribal-spiritual yearning amidst gradual secularization and loss of traditional bardic rituals.
The noteworthy presence of 'darkness' in these paintings symbolizes a complex freedom of perception at the haptic level, encompassing rich textures and miniscule motifs. This 'darkness' is sign of both creativity and a sense of burden for tribal artists, as their work is exploited in the urban art market. Finally the aspect of 'darkness' is related to that in Rabindranath Tagore's paintings done in the last phase of his literary creative life, suggesting a similar crisis of spirituality at the individual and civilizational level.
Presenter Biography
Deb Kamal Ganguly, Senior Faculty in Auroville Film Institute, India is a filmmaker and researcher. He has taught in Film and Television Institute of India, Pune and other institutions of repute. He has presented papers in international seminars and conferences on pedagogy of cinema, Deleuze studies, visual art, interfaces of art practices etc in The Witwatersrand University, Johannesburg (2018), VGIK, Moscow (2019), Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater (2019), University of Arts, Stockholm (2022), Sapienta University, Romania (2022, 2023). He has delivered invited lectures in Netherlands Film Academy (2023). His essays got published in several academic journals and anthologies including publication from Routledge. His independent video work got published under special curator-ship from Lowave, Paris. His video art has been featured in the exhibition 'Indian Highway' and showcased in various galleries of Europe and Asia. He was invited to participate in international project for artistic research involving BRICS countries, being the coordinator for India (2018). His research interest lies in film-philosophy and ontology of art practices.