Folk Art-In Reference to Visual Vocabulary of Print Media Advertising
Abstract:
Folk Art primarily means “nonprofessional art”, art practiced in community by common men and women in various walks of life, for decorative and ritual use in their homes and community. Such an art exists separately from the stream of the professional art, although when it grows in body and moment it enters in to various relationships with the professional art craft of the time. As a result folk artists make use of the motifs drawn from the professional artists giving them different meaning and adding to them different vigor; the professional artist draws on folklores and folk forms in turn. India has been known for its cultural and traditional vocabulary through its art and craft. Different regions has its different ethnic Folk Art, which is vibrant in forms and colour. Print media Advertising uses this forms as a method of visual communication.
Keywords: 2 million years, Culture, Decorative, Festivals
It is believed that earth came into universe 200 million years ago and humans were born around 2 million years ago. Human-chain trying to explore different ideas, doing new inventions, expressing feelings, fighting with each other and establishing themselves at certain places is known as folk-culture. ‘Folk-Art’ contains two words. ‘folk’ and ‘Art’. This ‘Folk’ word is known to us since Vedic time, which means society that practices agriculture, cattle farming etc. and follows cultural traditions.
Folk Art is not anywhere therefore it is the art of pre-literate cultures that depend on oral and visual traditions. It is also spontaneous actualization of aesthetic sensibility latent in every man in contradiction to sophisticated art that only a few are equipped to practice. Some consider folk forms as provincial deterioration of metropolitan traditions; other consider them basic alluvium from which all strong art traditions rise and draw sustenance. Though most of these opinions focus on some aspect of folk art yet none of them is comprehensive. Every time we use the term ‘folk art’ we need to redefine the sense in which we use it. Until very recently folk art forms were not taken very seriously by artists, it is only recently that the interest in folk art forms as art forms and folk art activity as art caught the attention of people who think seriously about the art.
In Indian Civilization different important rituals are being practiced between birth and death. Many of these rituals can be put into category of Folk-Art. For example folk songs of different regional languages, puja, decoration done on wall on different occasions, vessels made of earthen clay, small statues of gods & goddesses etc. comes under the category of Folk Art. Dance done in fairs, as well as ‘Raas-Lila’ are also considered Folk-Art. Out of all of folk art “folk-painting” has its own identity.
Since pre-historic time, man had started using power of hand. In Stone-Age he had already learned to create weapons of stone for hunting. After this he might have got attracted to his surroundings, animals, birds, and flowers & than he started decorating his body with feathers, flowers etc. Slowly he started using red clay and coal ashes as a colour to draw images on walls of caves. Man took millions of years to reach this half-civilized stage. We can see these types of images drawn around 50,000 B. C., in the caves of France, Spain as well as in India.
In ancient times Folk-Art was not limited to only body-decoration. Females started decorating walls of houses with clay, white chalk etc. Especially during festivals ladies started decorating walls with motifs from their surrounding environment. Thus basic form of folk art is decorative. Male-female decorated their bodies to attract one-another. The connection of soul & body is also one of the reasons for birth of folk art. The man started his imagination to decorate his body with colours, clothes and jewellery. Same way he also created god-goddesses in simple-symbolic way. Slowly he created pictures of human activities, animals, birds, plants etc on the walls. These folk drawings were mainly simple line-drawings. This folk art expressed personal as well as feelings of the community. The main purpose of folk art was to get blessings of god and goddesses during ‘puja’ and festivals.
This folk art especially shows ability of women to decorate things with sense of beauty. Mainly organic materials such as chalk, turmeric, red clay, vegetable dyes etc. is used to draw images. The technique is transformed from one generation to another in both oral and practical way. Folk art has variety of forms and & style because it changes from one region to another. Sometimes even forms are different at different places, the purpose is same, to get connected with supreme power.
So, today folk art or nonprofessional art is not a neglected field as it used to be. Because of the fact that such activity is becoming a rare in a fast urbanizing world and the fear that in few years such activities may be absent altogether has led to an acceleration of such interest. We need to keep folk art alive, if we can, in heart of every citizen of a country to provide extreme benefit to the culture.
Case Study: GE Print Media Advertising Campaign Designed by BBDO Agency
As a case study one of the General Electrical Works campaign designed by BBDO advertising agency depicts forms very effectively. It shows grassroots connection to villages. The campaign uses some of the most local art forms such as Patchwork, Madhubani and Kalamkari Art. The most important aspect of these folk-art forms is they portray social life that includes humans, animals and surroundings. The attention catching element of folk art and its visual vocabulary is ethnic colour palette, typical forms, narration and traditional content.
Conclusions:
Although most of these views throw light on some aspect of folk art, it is not easy to give clear definition of folk-art. Every time we use the term ‘folk art’ we need to redefine the sense in which we use it. Folk art has to be considered as part of our culture and not separate art form. Use of art forms borrowed from folk art has attention value which helps to motivate viewer.
References
- Goetz, Hermann (1959). Five Thousand years of Indian Art.
- Goswami, B. N. (1986). Essence of Indian Art, San Francisco.
- Zimmer Heinrich. (1964). The Art of Indian Asia Vol.1-2, Bollinger Series, Pantheon Books, New York, Barron's.
- Welch S. C., (1985) India: Art and culture 1300-1900, New York.
- BBDO fuses folk art with technology in new GE campaign. (n.d.). Retrieved November 12, 2020, from https://bestmediainfo.com/2012/05/bbdo-fuses-folk-art-with-technology-in-new-ge-campaign/