ARTS and CULTURE

It isn’t often that one hears of a temple selling off its artefacts. Auction house Bid & Hammer announced recently that were going to auction items from one of Bangalore’s oldest Jain temples. The auction, enticingly titled the “Mystery of Chickpet”, will see items from the 90-year-old Shri Adinath Swetamber Jain temple in Chickpet being put on the block. The auction, to be held in the ITC Windsor on March 10th, will see some lavish treasures going under the hammer, such as several silver double doors each with elaborate repoussé (or relief) work, a viewing grill and two Dvarapalakas; a…

Pics: Chitra Iyer. Holy celebrations with friends.Little holi players.Colors and joy.Colour attack.Smears and splashes.Holika‹ › $(document).ready(function(){ $('.carousel .carousel-inner .item').first().attr('class', 'active item');});⊕

Instead of the focus being on the foremost brands in the world, this week, the focus is on the foremost art galleries in the city. Friday the 26th of February saw the inauguration of the five day long “Art Bengaluru 2010”- Bangalore’s contemporary art festival. Art Bengaluru was a five day program with an on going display of work from different galleries in UB city.The inaugurationWomen and high heels and men dressed in suits, browsed the three floors of UB city, wine in hand to see art from the best galleries in Bangalore. Each gallery had a small space to…

The three days of music and dance at Brigade MLR Convention centre, JP Nagar was a thorough treat for all music and dance lovers. Hats off to Manasi Prasad (Head - Music Project, Brigade Enterprises) and K N Sashikiran (Founder and Director of Carnatica) who made this event possible.On February 26th evening a grand inaugural concert by Ganesh and Kumaresh (violin) and party marked the beginning of the Utsav. The duo presented a remarkable blend of melody and synchronisation. The theme was "Six seasons". The first Vasantha Rithu in Bilahari Raga was meticulously executed and was followed by Greeshma Rithu…

Whitefield - what kind of images would this name evoke? most likely IT - a glass and steel building, the Technology Park or maybe even the Sai Baba Ashram, anything but a village. Well, Whitefield or rather the old settlement of that name certainly qualifies as a village and a lost one at that.I first visited the old settlement more than a year ago in connection with another research project and was fascinated by its circular planning and wished to know more about its history. My starting point was of course, Lewis Rice's 1887 Mysore Gazette. In it he describes…

One fine morning (around 30 years ago), waiting at a bus stop in Madurai, Arjumand Fatehally saw a street child attempting to stick the top of a discarded cigarette box with her saliva – in an attempt to make something. Keenly observing her for a while, Fatehally sat down and tried to help the child make her 'toy'. Of course – she missed her bus. But she says she found her true passion in life - making crafts from 'waste'.Arjumand's enthusiasm, at the age of 79, to continue this work and share it with schools and galleries would put all…

Janapada Loka located at around 43 kms from Bangalore will make for an ideal visit for those who are who are inquisitive about cultural heritage. Just hop onto a bus, ride on your bike or stop by on the way to Mysore and have a peek at this world steeped in culture and art. Janapada Loka is located on the Bangalore-Mysore highway at about 3 kms from Ramanagaram. Inside Lokamatha Mandira (clockwise from top left): Flower baskets, Bhumanni & Achambli Ritual baskets and storage boxes; Fruit Baskets and Granaries; Vegetable/fish Cutter; Baricoot traps and tools used to pluck areca nuts;…

Koramangala resident Suman Bolar, communications consultant and creator of the Foodtravelbangalore blog is a fairly new art enthusiast. Her passion for art started with a visit to the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC about five six years ago. Right Lines Gallery at Indiranagar. Pic: Reshmi Chakraborty. "I did not know that looking at the photograph of a painting and looking at the real thing on the wall were such completely different experiences," Suman says. That visit started an interest in art that has seen Suman and her husband visit galleries and develop much more than a fleeting interest…

BBMP is on a beautification drive, painting the walls in the city in a hue of colours. Since August 15th 2009, about seven lakh square feet of wall along main roads and bridges, mostly in the west zone of the city have been turned into canvases for the BBMP’s Karnataka Vaibhava wall painting project. Scenes from mythology, paintings of the temples at Hampi, Belur and Halebid, the Mysore Palace, historical figures of Karnataka, jungle creatures, and even a few socially conscious paintings of polio vaccinations and the dangers of alcohol related abuse now adorn the public walls of the city,…

A bull. A ballerina. A Buddha. A baby T-Rex. And a big ant. All in one place. Frozen in steel - yet appearing to be in motion. These are but a few works of artist Kalyan S Rathore that are on display at ‘Active Canvas', Jayanagar I Block, till February 23rd, 2010 in an exhibition titled ‘Verbs in Steel'. Kalyan S Rathore with one of his steel sculptures. Pic: Deepa Vaishnavi.Industrial and Product Designing, Biology, Entrepreneurship, Ergonomics and biomechanical machines, Geometry, Contemporary Furniture are words that one would usually not associate with an artist, barring a few such as Kalyan…