Rang Bhare Jeevan Mein Kala Mela
–
documented by Jennifer Dickenson
We
all have the ability to create. One of the
beautiful things about human nature is that we all inherently have the ability of free
thought. Increasingly often, however, this
ability gets insulted. Our lists of options
are quickly dwindling. This occurs in every
facet of life from what foods we eat to the way society sees as acceptable to raise our
children. Our schools, media and society are
slowly taking away our options by making our lives more standardized. A standardized, ready-made world works like a
machine and is easier to maintain. While this
world may be ‘efficient’, it does not readily accept original thought,
creativity or expression.
Where
has the place for expression gone? We reserve
this luxury for special people we call “artists.” By the simplest explanation of the word, an
artist is a person who makes art. But
everyone can make art! However, the machine
society has done a very good job to convince us otherwise.
The
machine society takes its roots in school systems. Teachers
ask their students to do similar projects, which they will then grade on the same
criteria. Because of this, students
(excluding the ones who rebel) will try to make their project fit the ideal. Teachers do not guide students how to cultivate
their creativity. The exact opposite is true. Teachers reward students when they fit into the
standard. This does not result in an
environment that is healthy and safe for creativity.
.
In
1999, Shikshantar hosted a month-long workshop called Twenty-First Century Artists (see
www.swaraj.org/shikshantar/udaipur_21startists.html
for more details). “We had about thirty
kids, and the first day, when they all sat down, twenty-eight of them drew a scene: two
mountains, a tree, a sun and one hut, only two of the thirty drew something
different,” remembered Vidhi Jain, core team, learning activist. These experiences corroborated the understanding
that schools hinder creativity. This
realization resulted in many workshops.
During
the past year, Shikshantar held many eight to ten day workshops on the idea of cultivating
creativity and outlets of expression. The
workshops were held mostly in different neighborhoods around Udaipur and in a few schools
as well. There were many different kids from
lots of different age groups and backgrounds. Workshop
facilitators used unique approaches to encourage the children to create beyond the
“scene-scenery” (mountains, river, sun; flowers; flags; their own name) they
made in school. During the days of these
workshops, the children became more confident, and started to create their own pictures
and come up with their own ideas of what to make. Towards
the end of numerous workshops, many of the children produced some excellent, unique works. The Shikshantar team thought it would be a good
idea to exhibit these works in a place for the community to see.
The
result was the Rang Bhare Jeevan Mein Kala Mela (Life Is Full of Color Art
Festival). How can each of us uncover the
artist within? What is the importance of our
creativity and its expression today? We
explored these questions and others through a variety of media and processes. There were four main parts of the mela: an art
exhibition, hands-on creation, a poster exhibition and a film festival.
The
art exhibition was one hundred and twenty-five pieces collected from the previous
years’ workshops. All of the art was
matted and set nicely and put under high-quality lighting.
(Incidentally, professional artists have had their work displayed in the same
space.) This tasteful presentation demanded
the respect from the public and restated the idea that one does not have to be a
professional artist in order to create art.
The
second part of the mela was hands-on creation at many different stations. Each station made art accessible to people and
tried to allow each person to find their inner artist.
I will describe a couple of the stations.
First
of all, there was what I and other people have come to call “My Left Foot.” At this station, one would paint on paper by
clasping the brush in his/her foot, mouth or any other part of the body, except the hands. Combs, toothbrushes and many other household items
were also available for painting with. We
used paints made out of common household and natural materials, like vermillion (kumkum),
henna powder (mehndi), tumeric (haldi), etc.
To
me, “My Left Foot” clearly communicated two things. First, making art does not need to be expensive. Second, people can free themselves of conventional
methods of making art. I may not feel that I
can paint well with a brush in my hand, but if one takes the brush out of my hand, then
everyone else and I are on the same level. I
then do not feel as if I must fit into some sort of predescribed norm, because I
personally do no know what foot paintings are supposed to look like, so I will feel better
about making whatever I want to create.
I
did see some interesting things while participating at this station. Many people would first stand and watch the people
who where participating. They would watch
them and wonder what they must be doing. After
an invitation to start painting, some people would squat down and start participating and
other people would refuse. When asking why,
many people would reply that they do not know how to paint.
They seemed too scared, or embarrassed to even try.
Moreover, even when people did start to participate, and we told them that they
were not allowed to use the brushes in their hands, some would say that they could not do
that. People often are afraid of things that
they do not know and have not tried before, but then how does one ever learn new things? There were many instances, however, that I could
see the wheels turning and people really getting into what they were making.
Another
station we had was the mitthi/gober (clay/manure) station.
Here, we encouraged people to make their own sculptures. People had a choice of two materials out of which
to make their sculpture: clay and cow manure. This
was a very popular station and many kids, and a few adults chose to make sculptures
ranging from cameras to elephants and people.
Few
people, however, decided to make sculptures out of the manure. The time this mela was going on was just before
Holi, an important holiday in India. A
tradition during this time is to make sculptures out of manure which hide some sort of
surprise, a coin or something of the like, letting them dry in the sun, and later burning
them. Although people will still do this in
villages, most urban people will not touch manure if they have the choice. When offered the manure, people would almost
invariably give revolted looks. However,
seeing some people touch it and make sculptures out of it was a good step for others to
take the stigma off manure and off the people who handle manure.
Another
part of the mela was a poster exhibition. We
hung posters throughout the Suchna Kendra (Information Center) space. The posters discussed both how can we explore and
express our own imaginations and creativity, and how are certain
frameworks/systems/models/programs getting in the way of our creative expressions. One of the posters that I found to be quite
poignant had a picture of a schoolroom scene. In
the scene, the teacher said, ”Alright students, the I want you to write an essay on
imagination and cooperation. The person whose
essay is the worst will be punished!” The
students in the poster have thought bubbles and one student thinks that she is going to
work hard and not give help to anyone else, because that person might steal her ideas. A second student thinks that he will just have his
father write the assignment. And a last
student thinks that he just will not try because he always fails anyway. The question written at the bottom of the poster
asks, “What kinds of processes should we have to cultivate imagination and
cooperation?” The posters raised many
different questions and were a good opportunity for starting discussions.
The
final part of the mela was a film festival. Shikshantar
had screened several films, but this was the first time that the team put on an entire
film festival. Films shown included My
Left Foot, Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times, Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi, Children
of Heaven, Kabulliwala, and Dead Poets Society.
Films were chosen on two criteria, first of all, their connection to creativity and
imagination and secondly, their ability to appeal to a predominantly Hindi-speaking
viewing audience. The films looked at human
potential and how we, as people, cope with the changing world. Most of these films were new for the viewers and
people seemed to enjoy them. In addition,
they opened up a space for interesting dialogue.
This
was my first exposure to Shikshantar. During
this mela, I had the opportunity to experience who they are and what they do. The essential thing that I saw happening at this
mela were different kinds of discussions. At
any time, during the three days of the mela, one could see the Shikshantar core team
members engaging in discussion. These
dialogues are so important for sharing and understanding ideas and experiences. More importantly, these dialogues link the entire
process to the community, truly making Shikshantar a people-driven movement.
Personally, this entire experience has broadened my scope on the way I look at art. After this experience, I found myself asking many questions. What makes a piece of art good? Is this simply a question of aesthetics, or is it more than that? What are different ways that people express themselves and show creativity? Where are these other outlets? Besides these questions and many others, I walked away from the mela having realized one thing. Overall, our creativity and expressions are not a luxury; they are part of what makes us human.