In Step with Beauty | Lifestyle News, The Indian Express

In Step with Beauty | Lifestyle News, The Indian Express

Updated: January 13, 2019 7:53:13 am

In Step with Beauty

DAAR brings visual and performing art on a common platform.

The idea is to reach out to a larger audience and help them connect with the rich tradition and culture of Punjab. (Jasbir Malhi)

AS many as 32 artists have come together to form Dance And Art Research (DAAR), a group that strives to bring visual and performing art on a common platform and also rediscover the beauty of the folk music and dance of Punjab. The group, which mostly comprises students and alumni of the Government College of Art, Chandigarh, launched the initiative with an art exhibition showcasing 70 works by artists. It was followed by a cultural programme showcasing folk dances such as Malwai giddha, luddi, bhangra, and jindua.

The group has won various accolades at national and international level in the field of visual as well as performing arts,” says Rahul Dhiman, a printmaker and coordinator of DAAR. The idea emerged from various conversations among the group’s members, who felt there was a need to reach out to a larger audience with music, dance and art and give them a chance to connect with the rich tradition and culture of Punjab. The idea is to provide an enriching experience to the audience by organising live demonstrations of creating art to involve the public. The exhibition showcases sculptures in fibreglass, metal, marble, photographs, prints and paintings in various mediums.

Art and dance, believes the group’s coordinators Parvesh Kumar, Sarabjeet Singh, Kulwinder Singh, Gurpreet Singh, are part of liberal arts and anything that is interesting and thought-provoking can be classified as art. The effort is to take the exhibitions and performances to various cities, and also organise live painting demonstrations and workshops. The group strives to survey the relationship between performance and the visual arts via an experiment, presenting the audience with similarities and differences between them. “Our group has painters, sculptors, printmakers, dancers, musicians and singers, whose work will stand the test of time both aesthetically and financially. Additionally, we would like to make buying art a more transparent process and have more people be part of the creative process,”
says Dhiman.