Communal Wall Art

Communal — 55 museum-grade prints that set the mood. DESIGN BRIEF: the brief was the women's pot dance, so the hero is full-width rows of dancers each balancing a stack of pots on her head, knees bent into the step, with barrel-drummers anchoring the ends of the rows. We held the fill to medium and kept the fish-net frame open rather than a packed mesh, leaving clear deep-maroon ground between the rows so the balanced pots and the bent-knee bodies read at a glance and never blur into one mass. DESIGN BRIEF: the brief was the communal youth hall, an interior crowded with seated figures, so we cut its front wall away and drew the rows of young people straight on under one wide roof, a standing elder with a raised hand at the centre, and set the village day around it — ploughing, weaving, cooking, the well. We held the fill to medium and kept the fish-net frame open rather than a packed mesh, so even with the hall full the oxblood ground threads through and each seated row and chore stays legible. Sohrai is a harvest-season wall art of Hazaribagh district, Jharkhand, painted by women of tribal and Kurmi communities to welcome cattle home after the rice harvest, around Diwali. Lac — the resin secreted by insects on plateau trees — is a forest produce of the region, softened over a flame and rolled into the bright red bangles worn at weddings and festivals.

Updated 22 Jun 2026