Sonabai Rajwar

Installation at Sanskriti Kendra / All images courtesy Sanskriti

I first learned about artist Sonabai Rajwar through the work of scholar Stephen Huyler, who has documented and shared her work through publications and exhibitions. I was very happy to discover a room devoted to her legacy in Sanskriti’s Terra Cotta museum.

Sonabai Rajwar’s story is unique - she lived in a remote village in the region of Sarguja, Chattisgarh. At an early age she was married to a man who, perhaps due to possessiveness (Sonabai apparently never openly discussed the conditions), chose to imprison Sonabai in her own home. For fifteen years Sonabai was not permitted to leave her home or see anyone other than her husband and son. During this time, she coped with her isolation by making things. With the modest materials available to her – bamboo, clay, and locally sourced vegetable pigments, Sonabai began to sculpt and paint what started as small simple toys for her young son. Over time these evolved into large, intricate sculpted and painted forms that covered her home’s interior.  She used bamboo as an armature for clay in order to create elaborate lace-like lattices and screens. Birds, animals, people, flowers, and patterns adorned her sculptures as playful narrative vignettes.

Upon discovery, Sonabai’s unusual work earned her widespread notoriety, causing an abrupt and transformation in her life. She became the recipient of attention from museums and governmental organizations; she was given awards, as well as salary and stipends to teach her craft; artists from her village began to also practice and teach her work, enabling a stream of income to support the construction of village infrastructure such as schools.

As a painter, my response to Sonabai’s work is one of immense visual pleasure. Her work is imbued with lyricism and a sophisticated design sense. Dense, colorful patterns are balanced by passages of clean white over quietly textured surfaces; formal repetitions of circle, lattice, and arch are rhythmically punctuated by small colorful animals and figures. On every surface there is loving attention to detail. The overall effect of her work is one of an outpouring of joy, generosity, and harmony – quite a feat considering the conditions that produced her work.