Unveiling
In October 2011, it organized the Akshara workshop on calligraphy with two eminent teachers. It selected 20 talented craftspeople to participate. All except one were literate, some could manage to write, but not expertly, and a few took to calligraphy like ducks to water even with no prior experience. The teachers had never taught adults before, and found the need to readjust their methods when dealing with national award winning craftspeople who felt like kindergarten students learning to wield a calligraphy pen. The teachers performed a remarkable feat in managing to condense a year’s course into six days, albeit with many short-cuts. The syllabus began with the participants learning to fashion their own bamboo calligraphy pens and ended with a range of remarkable calligraphy in many scripts. Each participant formulated enthusiastic plans to apply this art to their particular craft or art form. A publication and a video film were made to record the process. The deadline for creating quality works incorporating what they had learned was the Akshara exhibition slated for September 2012 at Delhi.
The calligraphy workshop Tool DisplaysDastkari Haat Samiti
Bamboo pens, known as Reed pens are writing instruments, were used with along with brushes at the workshop.
The calligraphy workshop Demonstrations by Proffesional CalligraphersDastkari Haat Samiti
Calligraphers demonstrating various styles of scripts at the calligraphy workshop.
The calligraphy workshop Prakashi Joshi using calligraphyDastkari Haat Samiti
Prakash Joshi, Phad painter from Rajashthan, has beautifully written lines in the devanagari script.
The calligraphy workshop Explorations by Prakash JoshiDastkari Haat Samiti
More of Prakash Joshi's devanagari calligraphy.
More of Prakash Joshi's devanagari calligraphy.
The calligraphy workshop Exploring scripts on paperDastkari Haat Samiti
Exploring scripts on paper.
The calligraphy workshop Group explorationsDastkari Haat Samiti
A group of craftspeople, discovering the use of calligraphy tools at a primary stage.
The calligraphy workshop CalligraphyDastkari Haat Samiti
Iterations of calligraphy.
The calligraphy workshop ExplorationsDastkari Haat Samiti
Graphical representation of the Urdu script.
The calligraphy workshop Motif of a flower created by calligraphyDastkari Haat Samiti
Exploring Telugu calligraphy through kalamkari art.
The calligraphy workshop Urdu calligraphyDastkari Haat Samiti
Urdu calligraphy created by a non literate embroidery artist from Kashmir.
The calligraphy workshop Calligraphy experimentationsDastkari Haat Samiti
Calligraphy experimentations works of various Indian regional scripts.
Painting Inspiration stageDastkari Haat Samiti
Once the artists understood the basic concepts of calligraphy, their own creativity and imagination took over. They formulated enthusiastic plans to apply this art to their particular craft or art form. Apindra Swain began to understand ways of calligraphy being incorporated in his work. He also took a new step by depicting non-traditional subject matter.
PaintingDastkari Haat Samiti
The astrologer has been a part of rural India, roaming the villages offering to tell people’s fortunes. Such astrologers are also found in the old parts of cosmopolitan cities. Parrots are a decorative element in much of India’s art and craft. In Swain’s story in a series of nine modules, the astrologer releases a caged parrot and teaches it how to select cards that add up to telling a person’s fortune, rather like Chinese fortune cookies. For most of the series in these paintings, the parrot is teasing the viewer, sometimes showing this word, sometimes that, flying in from the right and sometimes the left. Finally, the astrologer, his customer, and the parrot gather together as the parrot picks out a set of cards that tells the customer’s future. The cards together read tumara aasha puran heba, meaning “your hopes will be fulfilled”. The pictures convey the message that education is liberating and can help in earning a good livelihood. A humorous subtext is in the lighthearted mocking of most popular forms of astrological predictions, which are reassuring clichés that insecure people seek.
The Akshara Project- Crafting Indian Scripts
The Akshara Project was implemented by the Dastkari Haat Samiti,in the year 2012, to weave together important agendas: teaching the value of literacy to unlettered crafts people, demonstrating the visual beauty of India's many languages, creating a new design vocabulary developed through artistic calligraphy in regional scripts and applying them to a variety of traditional craft skills.
Initial stages of the exhibitionDastkari Haat Samiti
Initial Stages of the preparatory phase.
Wall DisplayDastkari Haat Samiti
Display of various regional craft exhibition items.
Displays with various objects from different parts of IndiaDastkari Haat Samiti
The Akshara Project- Crafting Indian Scripts: Display of various regional art and craft works.
Phad Painting by Prakash JoshiDastkari Haat Samiti
Phad Painting by Prakash Joshi.
Wooden Kavad Cupboard by Satyanarayan SutharDastkari Haat Samiti
Wooden Kavad Cupboard by Satyanarayan Suthar.
Sanjhi ArtDastkari Haat Samiti
Sanjhi Art by Ram Soni
ScrollsDastkari Haat Samiti
Patachitra (Scroll Paintings) by Radha Chitrakar and Sanuwar Chitrakar.
Lamps in styles of Wood and lacquer, Terracotta and SanjhiDastkari Haat Samiti
Top Row: Wood and lacquer Lamps by Noor Salma
Left to Right: Terracotta Lamp By Rajesh Roy, Wood and lacquer Lamp by Noor Salma, Wooden lamp with sanjhi paper cut art by Ram Soni
Hand embroidered wall hanging from Gujarat by Sonaben Koli & KarmibenDastkari Haat Samiti
Display of a hand embroidered wall hanging from Gujarat by Sonaben Koli & Karmiben.
Handwritten Urdu/ Hand bound Books by The Musalman Guide: Syed ArifullahDastkari Haat Samiti
Top: Handwritten Urdu daily newspaper The Musalman,
by The Musalman
Left to Right: Book Binding by Naresh Kumar, Children’s story book Amar Ma by Bahadur Chitrakar, Children’s story book 'Majhe Vadeel' (My Father) by Rajesh Vangad.
Sneh Gangal and artworkDastkari Haat Samiti
Kangra art on mirrors with calligraphy by Sneh Gangal, the artist in the picture.
Embroidered Wall HangingDastkari Haat Samiti
Embroidered Wall Hanging by Savitri Devi, the artist in the picture.
Stone Platters by Adil WriterDastkari Haat Samiti
Stone Platters by Adil Writer.
History of the Gurumukhi ScriptDastkari Haat Samiti
Regional script banners.
Hand painted wall frames by Apindra SwainDastkari Haat Samiti
A set of patachitra paintings by Apindra Swain depicting the story of the liberation and education of a parrot.
Woven and embroidered sareeDastkari Haat Samiti
Woven and embroidered saree by Ramanand Basak and Khamabati Karmakar.
Panels with text on "Akshara"Dastkari Haat Samiti
Panels in the style of miniature painting by Vijender Bharti.
Projection created by Mandakini Devi by Ram SoniDastkari Haat Samiti
Projection on an installation and beyond.
AksharaDastkari Haat Samiti
Projection on an installation.
Calligraphy by Rajeev Kumar.Dastkari Haat Samiti
Calligraphy by Rajeev Kumar.
Structures as displaysDastkari Haat Samiti
Sculptured devanagari alphabets made of drinking straws and light.
Calligraphers at the workshop demonstrating their work Calligraphy workshopDastkari Haat Samiti
Calligraphy workshop at Akshara.
Exhibition at Egypt Script PanelsDastkari Haat Samiti
Script panels hung at the entrance.
Exhibition at Egypt Calligraphy on papyrusDastkari Haat Samiti
Calligraphy on papyrus paper by Rajeev Kumar of India and Hossam of Egypt. It says Aankhon se door, dil ke kareeb meaning "far from view but close in hearts".
Exhibition at Egypt Dance and calligraphyDastkari Haat Samiti
Contemporary dancer, Gilles Chuyen at the Akshara inaugural in Cairo.
Exhibition at Egypt Dance Film and performanceDastkari Haat Samiti
Aksharaakaaram - a film on Calligraphy and Dance. Dancer Gilles Nguyen moves past with a textile woven with calligraphy.
Exhibition at Paris Exhibition DisplayDastkari Haat Samiti
AKSHARA: Indian Calligraphy redefined at the Unesco venue. Craftworks and abstract projection amongst the exhibits.
Exhibition at Paris Kalamkari explorationDastkari Haat Samiti
Demonstration of Kalamkari art at the exhibition.
Exhibition at Paris Demonstrations on carpet makingDastkari Haat Samiti
Demonstration by carpet weaver, Mohammed Kalam.
Exhibition at Paris Calligraphy demonstrationDastkari Haat Samiti
Conversations in craft and calligraphy with master calligraphers from China, Russia, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Korea, Japan and India. The exchange merged well with UNESCO's mandate on culture and the preservation of linguistic diversity.
Exhibition at Paris Dialogues through calligraphyDastkari Haat Samiti
International Calligrapher, Wang Xuyuan exploring various styles.
