Colouring stories from the Soil 🛕🐚
How an earth the earth beneath our feet was redefined by a local community in Goa.
Hey cultured amigos,
How have you been? Any news across the ether? In this newsletter I shed light on the coarse gritty matter beneath your feet that has transformed humans for centuries. SOIL! Okay but before your eyes start darting towards an exit button on your tab, this is *not* supposed to be a seminar about how soil is good for the planet, keeps the ecosystem churning etc etc. You already know the dull (albeit important) facts about the seemingly dull mineral - but hey let’s say you learn something everyday and today is just one of those days you learn something un-dull for once. Buckle up, because soil just got fancy.
Soil almost feels like the next-to-last thing on earth to use as art. Why? Well for starters.. it’s organic so its ability to nurture all sorts of living crawlies doesn’t exactly make it the best candidate to paint your living room with. In which case you must have guessed my look when I met an artist in Goa (India) who did exactly this - used soil to literally paint their living room….walls…temples, you name it.
So for this newsletter I decided why not dig in (pun fully intended) to scatter those grains of knowledge (I couldn’t resist) about the art form called Kaavi Art aka the soil based mural art that has been around in Goa, the coastal haven of India for over 600 years.
Soil is everywhere
The use of Soil in Art is neither a new phenomenon nor limited to one culture. Soil pigments were the bread and butter for so many artists especially during the Renaissance where masters relied on iron-oxide-rich yellows, celadonite-rich greens and kaolinite-derived whites (these are all minerals so google tells me) to portray their rich landscapes.
In another part of the world, the Bamana people of Mali have been creating intricately patterned mud cloths, or bogolanfini, for centuries on end, which involves a complex labour-intensive process of baking fermented wet soil into woven cotton. Hypnotic - ain’t it?
Along a similar vein, indigenous people from Australia create temporary art using different coloured soils and sands, often during ceremonies or as part of storytelling traditions. The Nuba people of Sudan create murals on the exterior of their homes using coloured mud and natural pigments and the classical perhaps most well known use of natural earth pigments by Native American tribes to paint on rocks, caves, and canyon walls.
So what is Kaavi Art?
Getting back to what we’re looking at today - Kaavi Art is a traditional form of mural painting found across the Konkan Region (which includes Maharashta, Goa and Kerala) in India on temples, shrines and churches.
The word itself Kaavi comes from the word ‘ Kaav’ which in Konkani (the local language of Goa) refers to the maroon pigment obtained from the laterite soil i.e the only colour used in the painting! So if you haven’t guessed already, the painting is entirely done in two high-contrast colours; white and red.
The Creative Process - a delicate dance between patience and skill
Kaavi Art is the result of a multistage intricate process, which basically involves the application and etching of red laterite soil set against a white plaster mix of limestone from seashells, washed sand (the sea came to use here, it’s Goa after all!) and jaggery.
The red ‘Kaavi Layer’ which coats the white plaster must be finely ground to a buttery consistency and allowed to ferment on its own for two days. Once applied, it is almost immediately followed by the mural etching magic that allows for any design amendments to be made before it dries and hardens.
Tools like stencils and steels bodkins are used to etch the wet surface which reveal striking patterns to unveil the stark contrastingly vivid of the white plaster underneath.
But it doesn’t stop there. The Artwork is dried for a day, and thereafter undergoes a weekly curing routine. Every couple of hours, water is sprayed onto the wall and polished with Smooth river pebbles to ensure that the murals don’t develop cracks over time. And you thought repainting your new house was hard...sheesh.
It goes without saying that the mastery involved is impeccable, but it was an evolutionary skill that this art form demanded from the artisans who pursued this tradition. Kaavi Art evolved as a durable art form by natives to wither Goa’s harsh climate of 90% humidity and 150 inches of monsoon rainfall annually. Hence with affordable, and accessible natural materials like Kaavi and lime, the natives constructed their own biodegradable form of painting which thought labor-intensive and require skill, patience and practise - withstood the test of time and unpredictable weather conditions.
Designs and regional nuances
Kaavi art from can be found anywhere from mosques to churches and temples along the Malian, Konkan, and Malabar coasts which just goes to show how art genuinely surpasses religious boundaries and cultures.
Traditionally adorning the pillars, walls and ceilings of temples and homes, one can spot the both geometric characteristic of Kaavi art like hexagons, circles as well as the figure depictions from local folk tales, Hindu mythology, the British conquest (yes, the odd soldier in boots) and scenes of contemporary life.
Colossally beautiful stuff out there.
Last thoughts…
Below is a brief interview with well-known Kaavi artisan Sagar Naik Mule in Goa, offering a delightful summary of everything discussed above, and an exclusive walkthrough of his emotional experience in creating these mural tapestries..
Hope you enjoyed learning about Kaavi Art!
In next month’s edition I’ll bring you an exclusive interview with a musician from Colombia who shares some insight into music of the cattle-herding mestizo people; Son Joropo - stay tuned 😉
Koyel x
Before you go…
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