Ecology and environment have been central to the work of the folk and tribal artists of India.

Mahabhuta, fundamental elements: earth, water, fire, wind and ether (space) form the basis for larger cosmology and universe. The discipline of Indian arts and aesthetics, with dualism: conceptual and practice, is deeply woven within the intricacies of cosmology. The space of liminal world and non-liminal world are palpable symptomatic of Vedic and Egamic traditions. Its strong connotations are immediately visible in the ritual festivals and its entailing symbolic motifs. Indian traditions and cultural legacy are an elaborative account of correspondence between sense-perception and human emotive states.  

 The benevolent disposition of the Earth has always associated her with feminine quality of abundant offerings that is why we hail her as Mother Earth. Nature transmutes to be immediate manifestation of God. Nature not just mirrors the multiple existences but builds universal harmony to nurture human sensibility. The tribal practices and festivals are the immediate repository of human participation in the ecology balance. 

Art  and  Ecology  are  two  key  words which  are  worlds  within  themselves.  Art  becoming  man’s  creative  expression and  Ecology becoming  the  space  in  which  man  creates.  Thus the two become vital significant spaces of creation.

When  creative  expression  enters  into   ecological design, it investigates and locates the relationship shared between the  diverse ecosystem.  The plea to save the planet raises our attention to the ever growing number of engendered species and depletion of natural resources in the face of industrial technology.  Art  thus becomes  a  tool  for  sensitizing  the  people,  it  becomes  an  ambassador  for  a  green  environment,  global  warming,  carbon  footprints  simply  a   geography  of  a better  planet  where  the natural  resources  are kept  in judicious  balance within  the  universe  of  mankind.

The Kathmandu International Fair has a curated thematic content to it. Keeping the theme in  mind,  three contemporary Indian artists have  been  invited for  MaaHi  presented  by  the Kolkatta  based  gallery  Akar  Prakar.    Probir  Gupta,  Paula  Sengupta  and  Vibha  Galhotra   Each with  their  singular  language  are  symptomatic  of  the  bio  diversity  and  the plurality  of  the  land . For  me  they  are  vital  to  the  concept of  MaaHi  or  Earth  Mother  who  in  the  mythic  past of  India  is  both  the  holder  of  fertility  and  abundance. 

Alka Pande

MIMI RADHAKRISHNAN 

Born in Kolkata on the 29th of August 1955, she spent her early years in the same city, followed by  Santineketan. Her scholastic training has been entirely in the field of fine arts. She studied print-making  under the guidance of Sri Somnath Hore, followed by Masters at Baroda under Sri K. G. Subramanyan. The  few fellowships awards she received are all in the field of art. 

A humanist, liberal, self-professed environmentalist and an ardent animal lover, she has her own studio in  Delhi, where she paints. She has lived in Delhi with her husband, son and pet cats for over thirty years.