Warli is an ancient folk art of Maharashtra, which is slowly dying. Project Warli is an attempt is to revive this art. The Cell acts as a catalyst in bringing forth the talent of Warli painters and facilitates marketing and sales by finding a right place and right price for their products. The purpose is not only to help the underprivileged artists to earn a livelihood but also to instill a spirit of entrepreneurship in their lives.
One such initiative towards this purpose of project Warli was this exhibition where the painters got the opportunity to get first hand information of the market demand.
Ethnicity shop owners provided with the free space for marketing the Warli products. Realizing the importance of adapting to changing tastes and requirements of modern day urban families, the Warli artistes came up with innovative Warli designs on products like pillow covers, bed sheets, pen stands, flower vases and so on.
Jayesh Dhanap, Raghunath Vangad and Kamlesh Dulcha were the three artistes who had come from Nareshwadi in Dahanu to showcase their talent. They were housed in the Somaiya campus during the duration of the exhibition.
In this exhibition, the artists also experimented with different colours like red and blue. They attempted to depict simple village scenes like a wedding celebration or a village life with hills and animals on dress materials, sarees and even pillow covers.
Jayesh the 16 year old young artist stated, “I learnt Warli art from my family members. This is the first time I have come to a big city like Mumbai.” Kamlesh on the other hand is an experienced artist who knows the pulse of the urban market. “Originally, Warli paintings were done with rice flour but now we have shifted to modern mediums like Fevicol and white fabric colours”, he remarked.
The feedback given by the Warli painters about the ‘Exhibition experience’ thus speaks it all about the success of this initiative in meeting its desired purpose.
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