KOCHI: For Subash Vyam, the Gond tribal artist who had worked on the much celebrated book 'Bhimayana', a graphical narrative that unfolds the life of B.R. Ambedkar, the experience was something interlinked with his life too, as he also had experienced caste discrimination in his village because of his dalit status.
Subhash revealed this while narrating his experience at the 'Let's Talk' programme titled 'Bhimayana: A stupa for Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar', organized by Kochi Biennale Foundation here on Wednesday.
"At the outset, I had my apprehensions about the work. I could not understand the concept initially because it was being explained in a version of Hindi which I found difficult to comprehend. Because of that, we had several false starts and there were financial difficulties too," the artist said. But, as the project progressed, I could easily relate with 'Bhimji's life, said Subash.
"I had similar harsh experiences in my village," he noted. Elaborating on the structural and aesthetic aspects of the work, he said the creative touches in the book were based on the traditional and original Gond art patterning called 'Digna'. Roshni Vyam, daughter of Subash Vyam and Durgabai Vyam was 10 years old when she assisted her parents to come up with this work.
