Vadodara: Atul Shah City-Based Art collector and his wife Mudita celebrated Gandhi Jayanti artistically.
The couple has prepared paintings that display the life and time of Mahatma using salt – symbols used by Gandhi to begin the movement of civil disobedience during freedom struggle.
The couple has held a theme-based exhibition in Gandhi for several years at an ancestral shop-cum-residence in the Kothi Vadodara area.
This time, they have prepared an exhibition titled ‘Salt: The Freedom March’ which they have prepared 22 paintings, basically sketches that have been prepared on the board using salt.
“This year is celebrated as the 75th year of the country’s independence.
The independence movement itself gained momentum after Gandhiji expressed resistance to British salt policies as a unifying theme for the civil disobedience movement and started Dandi March.
We think if salt is used symbolically by Gandhiji, why Don’t use salt to describe your own life and journey, “Shah said.
The couple has no background in art.
If Atul Shah holds BCUR, LLB, BTP and LLM, his wife Mudita has cleaned up old SSC.
But for artwork, they took guidance from friends and their art conservators Chandrashekhar Patil.
“The challenge is to keep salt as intact on canvas.
Salt starts to melt because of moisture.
So, we bring patil help to understand how salt can remain intact.
We need almost five months to prepare paintings and ensure that salt does not disburse or spread,” he said .
Given the ongoing pandemic, artists taught themselves openly display their work online.
“We can arrange the public look at home we welcome all visitors for three days starting from January 30 which marks Gandhi Nirvan Diawas or Shaheed Diawas,” he said.
The couple has made a sketch of various aspects of the life of Gandhi – from the map of the route Dandi March, the interaction with Rabindranath Tagore, the school he learned in Rajkot, his work for communal harmony, Swachhha movements and social services for untouched and sick people.