Culture & Politics at Tara Books

How do we think of the relationship between culture and politics at Tara?

Find out more by signing up for our workshop in Bengaluru, on January 26, 9.30 am to 1.00 pm at @champacabooks.

Meanwhile here is a preview of workshop content

1. We think that learning to see differently makes for a different engagement with the world. Working with indigenous artists we have gained a second sight. Our first image is from `Beasts of India` and the artist is the remarkable Gond artist, Jangarh Singh Shyam

2. We also have come to understand that an artist is a labourer, a person who does not dissociate the imagination from the work she does to earn a living - like Dhulari Devi, a Mithila artist (image 2, from `Following my Paintbrush`).

3. What is art? In `Origins of Art - The Gond Village of Patangarh`, Bhajju Shyam, Gond artist reflects on the question, while pointing to how homes in his village combine beauty and function ( image 3)

4. And in image 4 we have Ramu Velar, a village potter ruminating on his craft, making and the call of the spirt (`A Potter`s Tale`). Makers are more than what they make, he muses.

5. And the question of politics: how do artists negotiate the demands of power, whether of the state or market? Image 5 is from `Another History of the.Children`s Picturebook: from Soviet Lithuania to India`.

Inspirations

OUR SOVIET CHILDHOOD

Those of us who were children in the 1970s in India and in what was then called the ‘third’ world, are likely to recall those unexpectedly beautiful books from a country that once was - the Soviet Union. Translated into our languages - in India, they were translated into at least a dozen languages - these books carried us into landscapes of snow and desert, forests and castles, modern cities and factories... we never tired of reading about the ogres and the wizards, wise women and competent girls, adventurous sailor boys and tireless young men building socialism. Priced at rates that made us feel we were getting these books for free, we waited in anticipation of those vans that came carrying them to our cities and towns, and for those makeshift book-tents that were pitched to display and sell them.

Illustrated by leading artists and designers from across the Soviet Union, who in subtle and imaginative ways negotiated censorship, the books featured a range of styles, from folk art to work that drew on futurism, surrealism...

When we begun Tara Books, we installed our collective collection of Soviet children’s books in our modest library and continue to spend time, leafing through them.

We were thrilled when we had a chance to work on a book, supported by the Lithuanian Institute of Culture, and authored by a remarkable curator and author, Giedre Janekviciute from that country - this made for a rather pioneering title, ‘Another History of the Children’s Picturebook: from Soviet Lithuania to India’.

The book narrated an unusual history of global children’s literature with the Soviet Union as its editorial hub, and also of cultural transmission that was unique in its reach.

We share here pages from Soviet books in English.

#lithuanianculturalinstitute #sovietchildrensbooks #

HARVEST METAPHORS

These are images by two Gond artists from our book Between Memory and Museum: a dialogue with folk and tribal artists. Each in its own way commemorates the harvest - and we thought we should share these with you on this day, which is the harvest festival in Tamil Nadu.

First image: by Rajendra Singh Shyam. He has reworked a traditional granary to signify the museum - a storehouse of all that we consider valuable, food and culture.

Second image: by Dhawat Singh Uikey. He suggests that the museum holds cultural objects much like a rat hoards grain droppings. The challenge he notes is to bring the harvest home to the museum.

#gondart
#harvestfestival
#plenitude
The

Sneak Peek

And so, perhaps, there is a book in here...

Drawn and cut?
Cut and stitched?
Stitched and ...

Who is it for?

#textileart #embroidery #textilescraps

Found in our warehouse!

We have unearthed a limited number of copies of Sun & Moon from our warehouse. Now is your chance to get this unique visual anthology - which extends our understanding and imagination about the cosmos.

‘The sun gives birth to life, and the moon gives rise to time’ - Ramsingh Urveti

Art by Bhajju Shyam, Ramsingh Urveti, Durga Bai, Rambharos Jha, Dulari Devi, Sunita and Jagadish Chitara

Designed by Catriona Maciver

#silkscreenprinting #gondart #matanipachedi #cosmictales

Is there a book in here?

These bits of cloth and colour - they spell magic.
Watch this space to know more.

#textilearts
#embroiderydesign

We thought of what we would like to take ahead with us into 2025 -
And this is what we came up with...

#newyear #2025 #greetings #martinlutherkingquotes
#martinlutherkingjr

Art featured in this post
@christianepieper_art from `Alphabets are Amazing Animals`
Manu Chitrakar from `I see the Promised Land: A life of Martin Luther King Jr.`
@rathna_ramanathan from `In the Land of Punctuation`

20th Anniversary

Iconic images from a Tara classic: The London Jungle Book by Pardhan Gond artist, Bhajju Shyam

Big Ben, The underground, The London bus...

Co-published with the Museum of London in December 2004, this book was a pioneering title in many ways.

- it reversed the colonial gaze, with an indigenous artist speaking back to the metropolis
- it was a moving and ironic portrait of a
the artist as a young man, traversing multiple worlds
- it brought a fresh perspective to how we view our colonial past
- it set the tone for many subsequent titles to do with art and the indigenous imagination

Currently not in print, the book will be back in circulation in 2025.

Meanwhile, we wish to mark an important anniversary - the 20th year of an important title

#gondpainting #decolonize #londonunderground #londoncity

As we go into the holiday season and await the new year...

#seasonsgreetings #bhilart #newyear

Art by Subash Amilyar for the book, `The Bhil Carnival`

Snapshots from the bookcraft workshop

Check out how our bookcraft artisans measure and bind ` Liberty` before setting it free to find its readers

20% discount on the book until Dec 23. Link in our bio

#centredupompidou #rathnaramanathan #pauleluard
#silkscreenprinting #bookart

Delighted to be here @conscious_collective! Founder Gita Wolf talks today about our work with indigenous artists and their perspective on nature. Browse our latest books at the wonderful @kahanitree bookstore...

Our latest handmade book, `Liberty`, has been published in collaboration with the @centrepompidou Paris, to commemorate the 100th year of the publication of the Surrealist Manifesto.

It offers a radical visual interpretation of a modern classic, the French poem, Liberté by Paul Eluard. Eluard was initially associated with the Surrealist movement - and his work bore the stamp of its influence.

Composed in the 1940s, during the Nazi occupation of France, ‘Liberty’ affirms the Surrealists’ commitment to international peace and justice, even as it reflects on the meaning of life in times of war and destruction. 

@rathna_ramanathan has illustrated the poem for our times - through a combination of abstract and figurative elements, inspired by Surrealist ephemera and typography. This self-conscious tribute to the Surrealist archive reworks the movement’s visual syntax to call attention to persistent global concerns - inequality, hunger, political tyranny... 

A fine example of inspired silkscreen-printing, by Tara’s book artisans, ‘Liberty’ features silkscreened images that have been carefully created, through the use of fine-mesh screens and a subtle overlay of colours.

Available on our website (link in the bio), at 20% discount until 23 December, 2024.

#surrealism #visualpoetry #pauleluard #handmadebook #silkscreenprinting #ephemera #modernart