Tradition and Innovation

Date: 1 September – 1 October 2004

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Venue: Art Exchange Gallery

Sundaribai’s work consists of painted clay sculptures and wall-mounted panels.

Over the last two decades several Indian folk artists and tribal artists have expanded the field of their expression and enterprise and evolved from their ‘traditional’ sites of practice to explore new possibilities offered by the contemporary environment of the urban gallery and museum. Sundaribai, with Ganga Devi (Mithila artist), Jivya Soma Mashe (Warli painter) have all crossed these borders and can be seen in contemporary art galleries and museums throughout the world.

Sundaribai lives and works in Chattisgarh, a new state with a tribal majority, carved out of the Madhya Pradesh region, west of Calcutta. Born into a farming family about fifty years ago, she started making work soon after her marriage at the age of twelve, developing techniques passed on from her mother. Her art practice spells a clear departure from repetitive tradition and has a distinct vitality and freshness, constructing new narratives from traditional iconography and symbols. Mythology is enacted in a contemporary local setting - Krishna sporting a wristwatch and his beloved cowherdesses wearing designer clothes – and in other works, such as Wedding Procession, Village Well and Couple on a Swing, the artist is actually mythologising her own life.