KIIT organizes mural painting workshop “Visual Narratives of Odishan History”
Kala Kos-an integrated unit of KIIT-KISS for research and revival of art, craft and heritage started its first initiative in the form of a Mural Painting Workshop titled “Visual Narratives of Odishan History”. The mural is intended to create a visual narration of the various ages from prehistoric rock art tradition to growth of national sprit of modern Odisha.
The workshop started on 9 th May and is on till the 19 th May, with the auspicious presences of KIIT-KIIS founder Dr. Achuyat Samant and director of the KIIT School of Fine Art Prof. Adwaita Gadanayak. The workshop is being Curetted by Veejayant Dash. This Workshop is unique in its own way.
This workshop did not follow the regular mode neither is this workshop product oriented, it is more of a process oriented, which involves almost 40 students from Govt. College of Art and Crafts, Khallikote and B.K.College of Art and Crafts. The students were provided with 4 Mentors, who are artists working in the field for many years. The students were given Proper Knowledge about Odishan History by two Experts namely Sailen Routray and Santosh Mallick. After the Audio/Visual Presentation and Lecture on history the Mentors along with the Students had brain storming sessions to develop the textual history to a Visual Narrative. And finally they went on to the walls to start the Mural.
The highlight of workshop is to put forward the issues of Odisha which are totally unsung, less or never acknowledged; it’s mainly as hidden object for everybody. This present work focused on the various issues such the material remains of Odisha from the Rock Art Tradition to the rich Temple Architecture.
The first panel talks about the Kalinga war which once happened in the 261 BCE and what was the main issues and how Odia people suffered from this war. Next narrative mainly highlighted the Buddhist heritage of Odisha of Lalitgiri, Udaygiri, Ratngiri, Kayama, and Langudi as landscaping manner and the represents of the Indralath brick temple of Bolangrir district, as well as the twin temple of Gandharadi which has never being highlighted in the heritage or tourism maps of the state.
The second panel narrates the story of trade and commercial activities of the then Odisha from 3 rd CBC- 14 th CAD, the export and import product carried by the maritime tradition. The famous maritime tradition also exhibits the narration of exporting Odishan products such as vegetables, clothes, various types of rice, pluses and spice products and importing various objects from other countries, which are installed in an ‘ancient-Boita’ of Odisha.