Life Resembled a Feeling of House Imprisonment During a Lockdown Said by Artist Durga Kainthola

Tales of scream, that withered away in silent tears”

Art by renowned artist Durga Kainthola on documentation of history and contemporary tales. Durga Kainthola, an Artist from India who lives and works in New Delhi is a treasure to be cherished. She got his education from BFA at Sir J.J. School of Art at Mumbai in the year 1987 and then MFA at M.S. University at Vadodara in the year 1989.

During her one to one interview she shared about her pandemic project. She has depicted the whole situation of Pandemic through her Art and Craft works

Documenting art inspired and influenced by the pandemic, is a tribute to those who passed away, suffering from COVID-19; being breathless and waiting for ventilators, in overcrowded hospitals, with scarcity of nurses, without their loved ones around and passing away in silence. It is hard to believe how quickly the world changed, almost overnight, people cooped up in their homes because venturing outside became a terrifying ordeal.

The haunting silence on the road, life stood still, reminding one of Dali’s surrealist painting “Persistence of memory”, where time stood still. It was an experience of a lifetime, a nightmare, horrors of insanity, tragedies after tragedies, an unforgettable period.

During this time digital media took over our lives. The empty and quiet roads led to the pollution level in metropolitan cities disappearing but watching TV was disheartening. The migrant workers felt that their life would be safe if they moved towards their home. They walked miles for days to reach their homes in faraway towns, all because transport came to a halt. The news captured images of the plight of the migrants with a saddening loss of life.

Life resembled a feeling of house imprisonment for a month during lockdown. The works done during this period, forced us to view life in retrospect.

Since my studio is a few miles away from home, I turned towards the unfinished works that lay in the cupboard for years in my residence. I found a few digital prints of Amrita Shergil and decided to participate in Mojarto’s ORA. The deadline was extended, and it made the online presentation even more tempting. The work “Portrait of Amrita Shergil “, began with stitching three portraits together and a sewing machine, which was laid in my house for years. It was in bad shape but tried my best and succeeded in putting it together and enhancing it with laces. I was selected and amongst the ten finalists

The next was a wicker chair seat that had withered away so to discard it I decided to cut it out and once I placed it on the floor it took the shape of a blouse. I used a 22-year-old glass window to mount this and titled the work “Re-structuring Life”.

Tie and dye prints on handmade paper done in a workshop in Mumbai were put together, and a work was evolved, using dried banyan leaves, an envelope, and a few stamps lying around in my notebook. These works were put into frames with LED lights titled “From Darkness to light”.

Newspaper clippings of Covid-19 formed collages, glued to 12 sets of feet narrating tales of “Padayatras”. These feet were casted in fiberglass in 1997 and dumped in a jute sack for years, used at last – narrating and representing migrant workers’ feet.