By Kavita Mhatre

The Bahuroopi National Theatre Festival is well-known for the wide range of creative endeavours on display, including work by aspiring and established artists from across the country.

This year, five promising artists from CAVA and Kala Nikethan, Mysuru, have put together a stunning collection of paintings. “Motherhood” is a common motif in the works by Monika, Aishwarya, Poornima, Akshara and Swathi.

These five debutante artists, through their meticulous work, have shown that motherhood is a universal concept that encompasses all the entities in the cosmos that nourish, care, and soothe. When asked what the experience was like while dealing with such an intricate and deep subject, the artists said, “A delightful and challenging experience for us was thinking outside the box and communicating effectively that a universal topic like “motherhood” applies to every entity that can nourish and love another entity.”

The collage of paintings titled ‘Motherhood’ use earthy, basic colour schemes, with smooth textures and transitions that communicate a multitude of sentiments about the central theme. The artists’ efforts to convey that nature and the earth around us play the role of a “mother” by taking on the life-giving and nurturing aspects that we observe in our own spaces with our mothers stand out in this wonderful collage. While images of women representing mother earth and mother nature have been around for a long time, these artists have deftly used elements of nature such as mountains, trees and water bodies to send home the point that, “The forms of motherhood are endless and are pretty much present in every aspect of the ecosystem around us.”

When we asked these young artists about the challenges they faced in assembling a montage with such a profound theme as the central subject, they said, “Experimenting with a whole multitude of colours, assembling a creative undertaking like this in a timeframe of five days, having to adopt a flexible approach with respect to the technique and composition was a huge responsibility, but we are proud of the final outcome and sincerely hope that the audience appreciates our fruits of labour.”

Even if you are unfamiliar with art, a casual examination of the show assembled by the artists reveals a sincere endeavour to transcend stereotypes and rethink the concept of motherhood. The installation combines fertility and care-giving, nourishment, and sacrifice, all of which have a quiet dignity and strength.

While the Bahuroopi National Theatre Festival promises to be an extravagant array of theatre music, folk performances, handicrafts, street plays, and all kinds of fun, entertainment, and enlightenment this year, we recommend you make it a point to visit the art installation, “Motherhood.”  The artists have used their skills remarkably well to demonstrate their views on motherhood and her beauty, which is full of grace and contrasts. There is a little something for everyone in these canvases—a little something that needs to be discovered, explored and interpreted !