KALPA VRIKSHA: CONTEMPORARY INDIGENOUS AND VERNACULAR ART OF INDIA AT APT8 – TAASA Review December 2006

Abigail Bernal A multi-artist project forAPT8, Kalpa Vriksha: Contemporary Indigenous and Vernacular Art of India features artists from indigenous or rural based communities in India, who extend practices that were ephemeral and transitory, or made for a context other than a museum.

The project investigates how ancient techniques and subjects are still being employed in their individual practices, as well as how these have evolved and become an instrument to express contemporary concerns.

Concentrating on a small group of younger generation artists, it incorporates narratives of spiritual and historical significance as well as of everyday life, through a range of painting and sculptural devices drawing on the traditions of Warli, Gond, Mithila, Kalighat, Patachitra painting and Rajwar sculpture. Tsunami, 2015, Pushpa KUMARI, Bihar, India b.1969...