When militancy and brutal killings are grabbing the headlines in Jammu and Kashmir, more than 60 Kashmiri artists have joined hands to promote the idea of harmony, peace, togetherness and dialogue through their artworks in Srinagar.
The artists, irrespective of their religion — Kashmiri Hindus or Pandits and Muslims — have chosen a 101-year-old dilapidated and abandoned Old Silk Factory in Srinagar, perhaps to convey the message of their glorious past when they used to dwell happily in the valley, it was reported.
Artist Chushool Mahaldar has named two artworks ‘Inside’ and ‘Fading Community’, where he has shown the agony, torment of both Hindu and Muslim people in the valley over the last 30 years.
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Mahaldar was quoted saying, “Not only are people living in Kashmir undergoing such a painful life, people who left the valley too are struggling due to the detachment from their homes.” He had to leave the valley in the 1990s.
Artist Mujtaba Rizvi said that last time artists in such large numbers had met, was in 1951 in a coffee shop on the banks of Jhelum River. They had to wait for 66 years to bring so many artists together in an exhibition.
Rizvi has contributed three blank canvasses — ‘Memory’, ‘Homeland’ and ‘Identity’– with brush and ink kept for visitors to express themselves. He said, “It was for the first time that we got together, ate together and talked about the past, present and future.”
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There were also artists like an 80-year-old Kashmiri Pandit who had the seen the days of turmoil and left Kashmir with bitter memories. He could not fight back tears, recalling the past.
The exhibition, organised by Kashmir Art Quest as an annual contemporary art show, started from June 18, 2018, and ended on June 24.
(Cover picture: HT)
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