Early Bahamani Architecture

On Monday I attended a super lecture on Early Bahamani Architecture (1350-1450) given by an Indian art and architecture professor from Greece. I was amazed by the details she had gathered during her visits to the Deccan, especially the border areas between Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra. She had taken photos of monuments in Bidar, Gulbarga and other adjoining towns. I especially loved the Takht Mahal (c.1450), Bidar. The professor had an intriguing theory that the throne, which was arguably at the center of a large room, was placed on the axis of two doorways, both of which overlooked lotus ponds. The professor felt that this was potential evidence that Muslim and Hindu ideas were comfortably exchanged in everyday life there. The ponds are references to lotus ponds of Indian gods and is reminiscent of the images of Gaja Lakshmi. This may be one of the few direct structural references in Muslim architecture to Hindu mythology and customs. I was also very impressed with the professor herself who was very clear in her ideas and speech, and very open to questions.

Beatrix Potter Meets Dali (or someone like him)

Earlier this week I went to a refreshing exhibition of paintings and sculptures at Chemould Prescott Road, titled An Advertisement for Heaven or Hell (a reference perhaps to William Blake's collection of poems titled, The Marriage of Heaven And Hell) The artist Suhasini Kejriwal, who is from Calcutta, had a lovely collection of artwork that depicted a dream-world of insects, animals and plants that bordered comfortably between peace and violence/death. The style in which the creatures were painted seemed vaguely reminiscent of children's book illustrations, and to some extent the works of Beatrix Potter (the artist obviously didn't think too much of this analogy understandably!). However in this cute world were large cockroaches, spiders and termites. The fear and repulsion that one feels towards these insects was softened by way they were created. The cockroach seemed rather friendly, and its body parts so intricately painted, that it seemed as if it was dressed in it's Friday-night clothes. Only the spider's legs were visible, as it was just about to enter the frame of the canvas. However, all the rabbits, rats, and plants around showed no sign of fear. So a potentially harmful creature is ignored by its potential prey. The white backgrounds held the diversity of plant and animal life together and added to the overall calmness of the paintings. But terror could strike anytime.

There was a series of crafty and intricate images of plants that fused into human body parts. The bright colours captured one's attention as did the composition, but did not impress me as much as the paintings described above did. Overall, the exibition, didn't seem revolutionary; you could connect the strands of the works to various past art movements and artists. However, the work is innovate in how it puts all the strands together.