She is holding her son who grips her tightly with a reckless smile on his face. This big and colourful wooden puppet describes the beautiful relationship a mother and her child share. Another puppet has been beautifully carved out of wood to take the form of lord Kamdeva, responsible for invoking feelings of affection, love and lust in others. There are 20 such sculptures at the art exhibition “Gombe” that manages to incarcerate one’s attention with its uniqueness.
These sculptures have been designed by Kannada artists including Anjaneya Hanumanthappa amongst several others. The exposition is third in a series of indigenous art, celebrating the completion of twenty years of the Art and Deal publications. Through these art pieces, the exhibition endeavors to reflect inner feelings that are interlinked with religion and culture of several people.
These magical wooden puppets allow one to have a glimpse at the cultural aspects of Karnataka. Sculptures include puppets of lord Shiva, lord Vishnu among many others and colour the ambience of the gallery to a religious one.
The term gombe means a wooden doll. These are usually huge in size and at times can be as tall as 12 feet and are very heavy in weight. Such dolls are primarily used in Karnataka in folk dances during major festivals. The dancers don these dolls during their performances. While the dolls used during such performances are made with bamboo sticks and paper mache, they are no less in weight.
Siddharth Tagore, the curator and collector of these art pieces, shares his journey, “I have travelled across the country and have befriended several friends from the art community, these collections represents the impeccable artistic nature of my friends from Karnataka.”
Siddharth describes folk art as a form of art that goes beyond masses. Having been in this field for two and a half decades, he talks about the time when he began to develop interest in art. “My father had a huge collection and all the art pieces were different from each other. Those mesmerising pieces used to interest me a lot,” he says. He holds an experience of 25 years in folk and travel art along with contemporary art but is more passionate about tribal and indigenous forms. He organised his first exhibition in 1992. Thereafter, he has done a number of exhibitions which represent different art forms and culture. Coming from the family of folk art, gombe had a lot of religious value attached to it but gradually it is transforming into an art of utility. “Any art changes and so does folk art,” says Siddharth. While gombe has begun to gain popularity, the process is very slow-paced. Siddharth adds, “There are very few people who have a penchant for this art and the number of admirers for this art form is still low.” However, a wave of optimism can be sensed in his voice as he asserts that gombe will make a big difference in coming year.
