Peace of Art

THE FIRST thing that strikes you is the Dove. Stretched by diplomats, poets and artists, its wings are not all white anymore.

When Pakistan and India talked at Agra, the dove took a shade of saffron, green and a little red.

But that's how far the imagination stretches. When students and alumni of the Government Arts College, Egmore, set up an exhibition of paintings on the Agra Summit, it was a gallery on expected lines, even some cliches. But how interestingly arranged.

Obviously, the 30 artists had a lot of material at hand. To start with were the flags of the two countries.

The Indian Flag as the sky, with the Pakistani Crescent on the green. Or the flag poles twined together. And there was enough shaking of hands over borders and fences, sorrowful faces and splashes of saffron, green and blood.

Mr. A. Viswam, artist, had, on Friday, mooted the idea for an exhibition to mark the historic summit.

The word spread, and on Saturday, about 30 artists assembled at the Russian Cultural Centre to work on 60 paintings in five hours flat.

Yet, so effective. In a vase shaped like Maori head were the two flags, and flowers with green leaves (obviously) and orange buds. There was also the dove.

And for whatever reason came religion. So we had Temples and Mosques in one frame, a burkha clad woman and a Hindu woman in another, and also the Crescent on saffron and a religious mark on the green.

But one painting took the cake. On this summit of peace, the painting showed Indian and Pakistani soldiers fighting on the same side against an unseen enemy. The exhibition also displayed eight frames of poetry. Mr. Viswam plans to send photographs of the exhibition to the two leaders.

The only sore point was that the artists missed out on a couple of more interesting points, like the Taj Mahal or a unified cricket team. Now, that would be a dream.

By Feroze Ahmed

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