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| Wednesday, 29 September 2004 |
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Revival of Indus civilization technique: 'Anmol' pottery craft of Anju Kumar by Rohan Jayetilleke
The three wheels of human civilization, the potter's wheel, the cart wheel and the spinning wheel were endowed to the world by Indians. The excavations at Mohendo-jaro and Harappa had yielded glazed pottery, and earthen urns. This techniques of pottery is there coursing through the veins of every Indians, preferring earthenware to metalware as utensils for cooking and other needs. The 'Anmol' meaning priceless is the brand name of creator and designer of handcrafted pottery technique Anju Kumar of Rajasthan, India. To see her at work is an experience one gains only once in life. Her fingers played with the clay, the mind germinated the designs, the heart poured the colours, the child of the brain and dexterity of Anju Kumar gave birth to handcrafted pottery with true to life designs, be it a goblet, jug, mug or any artefact to adorn a home shelf. She has revived the art of her long lost ancestors of the Indus civilization of around 5000 BC to passed onto posterity inviolate. The creations are hand painted and the articles are produced in the millennia old potter's wheel technique. Anju Kumar is no master of fine arts, nor has she garnered the art of pottery in a training institute that are functioning all over India. She never visualized a career in pottery. A few paintings executed by her at random gave an artistic leverage to her mind. She made earthen planting pots or vessels and urns for her home use, but deviated from the beaten track and designed them and hand painted them to add more colour and eye - catching tendency in them. These were appreciated by her home folk as well as others who visited her home. This domesticated young woman of immense resources of Indian arts and crafts gifted to her by god Viswakarma (god of miracles), she has now become a pottery designer of repute. The Anmol Designer Pottery creates beautiful and highly appreciated handcrafted products, each one quite distinct from the other with no semblance of a common style, shape of design but each unique and exquisite in shape, colour and form. The emphasis in her creation centres on blend of beauty and utility and her creations range from Ganeshas (God Ganesha - of Knowledge in Elephant shape), pillar tables, jharokhas and stained glass panels and murals. The vivid range of innovations are blended to embellish these exclusive eye-storming artefacts. The sizes range from cute six inches to mammoth six footers. She also has pioneered in Indian pottery the concept of coloured pottery by using bright colours to accentuate what she turns out. She is just a potter, painter and creator who has reached the acme of perfection in the art of pottery in the university of experience. This is now her full time passion and vocation. With dexterity and precision that this discipline demands, she has made it a medium of self-expression, in that what her heart yearns for is given pictorial representation in the brain and the hands make the final product. Although she cherises to adopt Rajasthani her own homeland women in her designs, tribal Egyptian, abstract and geometrical designs too come within her ambit. In the exhibitions she holds the immediate sell-outs are sculpted women figurine in terracotta, tall floor lamps along with vases in gradation, oriental vases, geometric stencilling on pots etc. She is a workaholic and works at her discipline almost 16 hours at a stretch and Anju Kumar has now held over 50 exhibitions by the time I saw her last exhibition. Her works are appreciated overseas as well. She has had prestigious contract from Five Star hotels and also has exported her products to countries like the USA, Singapore and the Middle East. It is a pity Sri Lankan business houses import porcelain vases of various sizes from Taiwan, Korea and Malaysia with no artistic glamour in them and not think of importing Anju Kumar's works from India. The writer is a member of Bharatha Kala Kendra. **** Back **** |
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