Today is
Baisakhi, the popular harvest festival of Punjab and I had the
opportunity to visit two photo exhibitions reflecting the culture of
Punjab in two different galleries in the city. While the Museum of Fine Arts
in the Panjab University campus was open, the art gallery of Alliance
Francaise was close because they observed holiday on Baisakhi. However on
my request, the watchman was kind enough to open it so as to enable me to see
the photographs displayed on the theme of Colours of Punjab.
Having read reviews of Colours of Punjab in two daily newspapers, I went to the
Alliance Francaise to see the photo exhibition. Generally most of
those who write reviews of photo exhibitions here, prefer not to
comment in detail on various aspects of photographs. Most of such
critics, I think, ignore such details, for reasons best known to
themselves or perhaps due to space constrains of daily newspapers. Therefore,
the reviews tell more about the photo-artist and less about the works,
especially technical aspects.
The Colours of Punjab by Harp Farmer, nick named, appeared to be a good maiden
venture touching interesting subjects concerning life in rural areas of Punjab,
but to me it appeared that most of the images have basic problems with
their composition and aperture.
The other
exhibition in Punjab University was entitled as “ Who Kaagaz ki Kashti….” by
Daljit Kaur. She had displayed photographs as well as installations which I do
appreciate as an interesting idea to project rich culture of Punjab, but in
none of the images I could see any human being. The installations
being based on various items of daily use in homes in Punjab and each
labeled in English language, could easily apprise the viewers about the life
style of the Punjabis.
The
photographs were of old styled doors, walls , ‘Gheeras’ used in rural
areas to store cow dung
cakes, ‘Ghupps’ made of hay and
used to store fodder, but here
too I found similar problem with images. The tightly cropped images of
‘Gheeras’ and , ‘Ghupps’ did provide an opportunity to admire their artistic
formations.Her installations and images of Punjab did reflect her deep interest
in culture of Punjab, but a little improvement in her photographic skills could
further enhance the overall impact of her exhibition.
Hope the art of installations will become more popular in days to come.
