A river, a painting and a community become entry points into stories that have travelled through generations in Myth, Memory, Form, an exhibition that looks at how origin myths can hold memory, identity, and knowledge. Curated by research-design collective Loksutr, the exhibition brings together artists from the Pardhan Gond community and Pattachitra painting tradition, translating oral narratives into paintings, books and large-scale collaborative works.
For Achyut Siddu, co-founder of Loksutr, along with Apoorva Mishra, the exhibition is also an extension of a practice that began with a simple question: how can oral knowledge be made visible without losing its connection to the communities that carry it?
“At Loksutra, we work with knowledge forms, indigenous knowledge, which is either inaccessible, incomprehensible or unappealing.” The collective works predominantly with oral and intangible forms of knowledge, collaborating with artists from the communities to translate these narratives into visual forms.
Much of this work eventually takes the form of books. “For instance, we record a story and then we break that story down into different scenes. The scenes are then visualised and compiled in the form of a book.”
The idea for Loksutr grew from Achyut and Apoorva’s earlier work as architects and consultants on the National Rurban Mission (NRuM), where they worked with rural communities in Madhya Pradesh. Their work brought them into close contact with cultural practices beyond the scope of the project, prompting them to document stories, photographs and videos.
Myth, Memory, Form brings together the culmination of almost four years of this practice. The exhibition presents three origin stories involving 10 artists, including six Pardhan Gond artists and four Pattachitra artists. Together, they explore the origins of painting, the Pardhan community, and the Narmada river.
Smriti Sutradhaara traces the origin of painting through 21 sequential works based on Chitralakshana and Chitrasutra, two classical Sanskrit texts on painting. Four Pattachitra artists translate these narratives into their visual tradition, creating a sequence that considers how the act of image-making itself emerged.
The second work, The Pardhan Continuum, takes the form of a seven-and-a-half-metre accordion book depicting the origin myth of the Pardhaan lineage. It looks at a community whose relationship with oral tradition is central to its identity and knowledge systems.
The third narrative, The Whispers of Immortality, explores the origin myth of the Narmada. The story appears in two forms: 24 sequential paintings that unfold the narrative scene by scene, and a monumental 10-by-20-foot collaborative canvas that brings the entire story together.
Each painting is accompanied by detailed text in Tamil and English, offering context to the narratives behind the images. Achyut hopes visitors will spend time with the works rather than viewing them only as objects of visual appreciation.
On till December 6. Entry with museum tickets. 10 am – 6 pm (closed on Tuesdays) At Varija Gallery, DakshinaChitra Heritage Museum, ECR.
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