Scroll On: Naya Patuas Sing Out the Coronadanav
This exhibition is a digital compilation of the brilliantly conceived and executed aesthetic representations of the Coronavirus by the patuas or hereditary singer painters of Naya, a village in the Medinipur district of West Bengal, through the medium of pats or scroll paintings. The exhibition’s title is borrowed from the patuas’ visualisation of the virus as a demon or an evil spirit in their folk iconography and their optimistic belief that they can exorcise or ‘sing out’, in Dukhushyam Chitrakar’s words, the Coronademon or Coronadanav.
The exhibition is a virtual walk through 22 jarana pats or long visual narrative scrolls, each accompanied by a song, and 10 eye-catching chauka or square posters created by the Naya patuas that hopes to provide the visitor an auditory and visual experience the patuas’ affective and cognitive response to the deadly virus. The singer painters featured include both senior, internationally acclaimed patuas and new, emerging ones led by their 80-year-old mentor Dukhushyam Chitrakar.
The scrolls follow a six part thematic sequence. The first panel in the majority of the scrolls is filled with a terrifying image of the coronadanav or virus in bright colours conveying anger, horror and dread. The panels that follow, on the other hand, display wide stylistic and thematic variations. Most scrolls conclude on a note of optimism about overpowering the virus through battling it bravely. The themes in the scrolls range from pragmatic tips about the need for strictly following COVID-19 rules and regulations; praise for medical personnel and the West Bengal state; exhortation for rising about differences of caste, class, creed and showing concern for one and all; deep existential uncertainty, anxiety, and fear and questioning of divine powers for causing the scourge and, finally, the collective will and determination to drive out the virus.
Naya Patuas Sing Out the Coronadanav (Still Exhibition)
Life on Scroll (Trailer)
