Description
Tribal Indian statue art
The tribes, practicing the Dokra art, originate from the Bastar region, in South India (today located in the state of Chattisgarh), they emigrated several centuries before and settled almost everywhere in India from North to South. Most have kept their tradition (culinary art, clothing, festivals) and their animist religion.
Dokra art: a thousand-year-old knowledge in the manufacture of statues
This traditional and artisanal art has not changed for millennia (more than 4000 years) and the technique used is always that of lost wax: a coarse clay model is made and then covered with wax by the artist who will give it its final form with its details. The whole is again covered with a clay mixture and then heated in an open hearth where a copper alloy will be poured. Visit my blog.
Objects produced by Dokra artists can be of a usual nature: cup, candle holder ... musical instruments (brass), or artistic such as jewelry, animals: horses, elephants, turtles ..., statues of men and women representing scenes of daily life and Hindu deities adopted by the tribes: Ganesh, Lakshmi, ...
Posture Sitting, threadlike, Ganesh plays celestial music. The expression of concentration is reinforced by the eyebrows which meet and form a, very marked, V.
This representation of Ganesh is very special: his belly which is usually always large, symbolizing anchoring, presence, stability is completely flat here! It is one of the tribal characteristics to free oneself from the codes: his ears although wide and round are not omnipresent, it is the length of the trunk which wraps the drum, gives Ganesh an astonishing airy appearance.
Headgear Crown in tiara shape: Kiritamukuta - symbol of royalty. The third eye halo his forehead: it symbolizes vision, knowledge.
Please note: in tribal art, Ganesh is not always decked out in his horse: the rat.
In this statue, due to its small size, there is no clay-based molding: the statuette is worked directly on a wax base which is sculpted very finely by the artist.