India was called Sone ki Chidiya (Golden Bird) not because of its rich reserves of the precious metal, but because of its wealth in culture and tradition that made conquerors from across the world seek a piece of the land. The British, unfortunately, left the country battered and broken.
However, they couldn’t take away everything because the world still observes our colourful festivals in awe and envy. In fact, with Dussehra and Diwali coming up, we are at the peak of these celebrations. It is this festive spirit that we found represented in a recently concluded exhibition entitled ‘The Golden Bird’ that displayed paintings, digital art, photographs, and sculptures.
The artists on display included Harjit Dhillon, Suraj Shukla, Priyadarshi Gautam, Jyoti Singh, Swati Sanil, Jasbir Singh Bhamra, Rita Arora, Rajni Tayal, Seema Bhargava, M. Malik, Manomoy Das, Raghunath Thakur, and Ram Kishan — whew! During a freewheeling chat, curator Erum Khan said, “India was not a ‘Sone ki Chidiya’; it still is and it will always be. There is kindness of such nature here that cannot be seen in other countries.”
While the colour gold was not used in all the paintings to represent this, a gold-like lustre was prominent in every case. Erum agreed on the same and called these works priceless. She continued, “Art is god’s gift. Whatever the artist makes comes from within and you don’t need any technology for that. You can always refine art but you cannot make art.” She further pointed out that it was the purity of the artist and their soul that made these paintings shine, even if sans the gold colour.
