THE NIGHT LIFE OF TREES

Upcoming Show: Amba Gallery, Solana Beach, California, Spring 2008

Previous Venues Include:
Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London
Les Trois Ourses, Paris
University of Alaska, Anchorage
University of Hawaii, Honolulu
Apparao Galleries, Chennai
Ashvita Gallery, Chennai

The concept
The Night Life of Trees exhibition brings together work by Bhajju Shyam, Ram Singh Urveti and Durga Bai, three of the finest living artists of the Gond tribal tradition. The exhibition consists of original artwork from the book The Night Life of Trees, which pays tribute to the beauty of the natural world and the interrelatedness of all life. The Gond tribe of Madhya Pradesh in central India are traditionally forest dwellers, and trees form the focal point of their cosmos. They believe that trees are hard at work during the day, providing shade, shelter and nourishment for all; but at night, when all the daytime visitors have left, the spirits of the trees reveal themselves. 

It is these luminous spirits that are captured in The Night Life of Trees – a fascinating and haunting foray into the Gond imagination, in which the aesthetic and spiritual aspects of the natural world are inseparable, and each image is an article of faith. The artwork in the exhibition honors the tribe’s traditional style, a ritual and functional form with distinctive decorative elements, mostly painted on walls of houses, and using natural colours. Each canvas in the exhibition is accompanied by text – narrated by the artists themselves – describing a legend, myth or folktale associated with each individual tree. A brief, inspiring film (on DVD) on the making of the book by hand is also available as part of the exhibition. 

Click on the images to enlarge

 [select spreads on website]

The Artists

Bhajju Shyam, one of the most widely acclaimed artists of the Gond tribal tradition, has exhibited his work from Paris to London, The Hague to Mumbai. Like most children from his tribe, Bhajju grew up helping his mother paint the walls of their village home. At the age of sixteen he moved to the city of Bhopal in search of work, where he soon became an apprentice to his uncle, the famous artist Jangarh Singh Shyam. Bhajju’s prowess as an independent artist grew quickly, and in 2001 he received a state award for Best Indigenous Artist. Tara published his first book The London Jungle Book, a visual travelogue of his first visit to a western metropolis.

Ram Singh Urveti is one of the most brilliant living artists of the Gond tradition. Ram Singh’s work has spread the myths and stories of the Gond community throughout Asia, Europe, Australia, and South America, and has won him awards nationally and internationally. His work creates a world of fantasy and metamorphosis, coming alive with finely detailed organic forms. He currently works out of Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh.

Durga Bai is a young tribal artist who constantly reworks and pushes the boundaries of the Gond art form to create work that sparkles with a distinctive energy. Much of her artwork combines the traditional symbols and stories of her tribe with a thoroughly contemporary focus on women’s issues and experiences. She has won a number of awards nationally and internationally – most recently with her illustrations for the delightful counting book One, Two, Tree!, now published in six languages, and for the upcoming Old Animals’ Forest Band.

Exhibition Details

The exhibition consists of 22 paintings and black ink drawings on canvas and black handmade paper (with average dimensions of 60cm width x 74cm height). The exhibition is fully curated with explanatory texts on the art form and content, and short, evocative text captions which accompany each painting. In addition to 15 pieces from The Night Life of Trees book, there are 7 new ink drawings from Ram Singh Urveti and Durga Bai, all capturing the spirits of trees the artists’ distinctive magical style.

The space needed for the complete exhibition is roughly 100 running feet of wall. The art is for sale, and terms would be worked out on an individual basis with a contract drawn up and signed by both parties.

The art can be sent framed or unframed. Tara Books supplies the exhibition free of cost. We would expect the exhibitor to bear the freight and insurance costs.

If you are interested in hosting this exhibition, contact us at promotions@tarabooks.com