SPEAKING at a recent press conference of an exhibit of folk art at "Karika" and

stressing on the need for protecting our dying handicrafts, Parveen

Ahmad, the convenor and chairperson of the Arts and Crafts Exhibit 2003, spoke along with three other of her associates. Ahmad said, "This exhibit of folk arts and crafts after almost 23 years. The reason why we haven't been able to organise such an exhibit earlier is because we were developing our marketing for general genre of handicrafts. As time is passing and we're realising that the commercialisation of our products is going from bad to worse so that, it is overpowering our original purity of design. For this reason this project has been undertaken and in this we have presented a large range of authentic rural crafts." Ahmed said that they are art crafts as they are a cultural connection with the Bangladeshi villages e.g. the cultural festivals in the different parts of our country; the crafts are made specifically during that period.

Again, Ahmad said, that besides the religious element in the crafts, there is a very deep cultural link the Indo-Gangetic civilisation, such as that of terra-cotta, cloth and natural fibre like jute, "shola" and beetle nut bark fibre, which are on the verge of extinction. These items go back to as much as 12 centuries. The Moenjodaro link which is visible in our terracotta dolls and toys go back to 3,000 years. Not only has that history been forgotten but the realisation that they are diminishing is that within two decades they'll be there no more. "One craft in particular which has suffered as recently as in 15 years is the type of painted scroll called 'Ghazir pott'. Ghazi is a 'pir' recognised both by the Hindus and Muslims, by the woodcutters, honey gatherers, fishermen and boatmen in the Sundarbans. They invoke the Ghazi pir, the tiger personality who protects the people who enter the jungle."

Ahmed said that the 'Ghazir pott' is a series of folk stories told by the village men of the bravery of this man who protected them from tigers. Ghazi, she said, is sacred to the Hindus too as they have a similar personality whom they called 'Shatta pir' but he rides a leopard while Ghazi rides a tiger and both carry symbols in their hands." Ahmed said that this is a vital craft, and when organising the exhibition they went to the well-known parts of Bangladesh where the 'Ghazir pott' was being made i.e. Munshiganj, Rajshahi, Khulna etc.

"Karika" had been able to collect only three authentic pieces, and there one or two from private collections. Ahmed added that one important reason for the diminishing of crafts is that the metropolis dwellers are not paying according to the demand of the producers. When the villagers are putting the products into the market the price is cut to half and bargaining goes on. The elite are least bothered while the middle class like the items and wish to use them at home but unless one is a connoisseur of art the people of the upper echelons of society have forgotten village crafts altogether, Ahmed added. Consequently what "Karika" has tried to do during the exhibition was to focus of crafts which have already died.

Coming to the topic of 'nakshikanthas', they have been badly "battered" by commercialisation, Ahmed said. Here too "Karika" had included items done in the villages in the last 25 years but these could not complete with the collector's items. Ahmed said with vehemence, "People are ready to pay a high price for painting but they are not ready to pay for a craft that has taken six months whereas the painting may have been done in three days. When a woman has worked on her handicraft on an authentic design for half a year she has the right to ask for more". "Karika" products are art crafts and not just handicrafts, she stressed. For this reason the theme of the exhibit had been "Know Bengali cultural roots."

There were nine categories of items of which only one or two were totally neglected such as the "Ghazir pott" and the "kanthas". These included terracotta/clay crafts, printed ports ("Shokh-hari"), plant pith craft ("Sholar kaj"), painted scrolls ("Ghazir pott") and "chitra pot", metal crafts,

"nakshikantha", carved wooden

crafts, hand fans, mask and puppets, we were told in Ahmad's

conclusion.

Chandan, a curator assistant at "Karika", once a student of the Crafts Department at the Institute of Fine Arts, Du, told that one did not feel that "Karika" had progressed much in the last 30 years, said in defense, "Yes, the work found here was much better, more in number. I've toured the most in the 'Karika' committee trying to focus on the different folk crafts. The reason why our standard has fallen is because the rural artisans have difficulty in marketing their products. I have sometimes gone to a source, following a 15 year-old documentation, and then discovered that in Rajshahi where 'Shokh hari' was being done village-wise is now confined to a few solitary houses. Similarly the makers of blanket from lamb's wool cease to function as before and take up other means of income generating sources. I found only an old widow still pursuing that craft." Chandan said that the entire Bangladeshi scenario is the same. He said that the folk art craftsmen have abandoned their old skilled work due to lack of demand in the market and plastic for instance has replaced clay. The only exception, he pointed out, was Naogaon where nine instead of four families are following a 'sholar' craft making birds and other items since the last 15 years. Even there is a problem as the craftsmen got the material for nothing but now the landlord are charging them a fee for the raw material, Chandan said.

Abdur Shakoor , the reputed artist, famed for his folk based paintings, said on the occasion stressed on the need for holding the exhibition to encourage our tradition so that the ordinary people can comprehend our rich cultural heritage. Asked if our city dwellers had become more westernised, Shakoor said, "We have tended to forget our roots. In the city we are not even aware of the traditions of the villages. This he said included the wooden dolls and 'nakshikanthas'." The basis of our pride, of being a Bengali nation is slowly being wiped out, he felt."

The press conference was mindexpanding indeed and undoubtedly an interesting one. The exhibition that followed shortly was even more interesting and breathtaking for craft connoisseurs.