‘Mitticool’- Crafts and the Socio-economic Spectrum

NANDITA PALCHOUDHURI

Traditionally, crafts were functional, serving the community in which they were produced. While society has restructured itself with new lifestyles and materials, the production of crafts has remained static. Nandita Palchaudhuri works to reconnect the crafts to contemporary demand. In the absence of a fund to support research and development, she repurposes the craft in collaboration with artisans sometimes as a curator and sometimes as a designer or artist!

A large number of craft practices like Chandannagar lights, Puja pandals, Sholapith sculpture and Patachitra are located around the Durga Puja, which keeps the craftsmanship idle for much of the year.

Nandita’s practice involves finding newer contexts for these crafts and initiating conversations with the crafts people about possibilities and ways to implement and redesign their skills to answer the questions that the modern economy is asking them.

Panchmura, a village of Bengal famous for the terracotta Bankura horses also produces a range of votive clay objects dedicated to Manasa, the snake goddess. The village used to host a snake festival (Jhapan) until a few years ago, at which time there was spike in the clay crafts. As the festival was banned in the view of ecology and animal welfare, two questions emerge. Can a centuries old practice that lies at the root of the cultural production of a society be halted; and if so, with what consequence? How does craftsmanship survive ecological and environmental sanctions?

Kumartuli is the largest ‘God-making’ collective, located in urban Calcutta. The Kumartuli artisan is not trained to conceptualise, but instead, precisely replicate traditional formulae in making clay images year after year. The Durga is created by a process of construction that requires specialisation at each stage. With the advent of the designer-artist, artisans face the ignominy of being marginalised, and seen as a production tool, and not the custodians of crafting the Durga. The artisan with little or no acknowledgement or ownership enables innovative forms and materials conceived by designers. The conflict between concept and artistry assumes the proportions of a clay war, fuelled by sponsored awards, celebrity endorsements for designers and the clamour from the commissioners for more imagination and themes. The enormous fees paid to artist-designers have sharpened this conflict.

These are systems under stress, negotiating the demands of an evolving value system in modern India. Every craft practice is responding to the changing market in an ad hoc and instinctive manner. While exporters, merchandisers, social enterprises and designers have certainly expanded the demand, their interventions are seasonal and short term.

Patuas now perform scrolls on the lives of Barak Obama and Osama Bin Laden, and paint mythological scenes without the accompanying narrative. Light artists make LED light panels that depict Mother Teresa and princess Diana ascending to heaven hand-in-hand. Sholapith Santa Clauses and the dokhra-cast reindeers decorate European Christmas markets.

The artisan, whose daily survival is tenuous, can hardly be expected to defend form and authenticity.

The Sagar Manthan, a turbulent churning of skills and markets: the emergence of new materials and technology, in a labyrinth of new aspirations, environmental awareness, social mobility, and quick fix gratification. While some skills will die a natural death or be killed, fresh approaches will emerge. For the first time, the artisan seems poised to determine his own destiny; much like Mansukhlal Prajapati the potter from Rajkot whose astounding enterprise Mitticool.com is the inspiration for the title of this paper.