2 minute read
Creative Cross Currents at Dimbola
From left to right Jane Richter, Colin Ford, Sunara Begum, Julian Bell, Jaspreet Singh Sukhija from Indian High Commission, Griselda Bear and Jeremy Bear at the launch of the exhibition
Creative Cross-Currents
at Dimbola
By Jo Macaulay
The colours and vibrancy of India enfold you as you enter the new exhibition, Creative Cross-Currents with India and Sri Lanka, at the Dimbola Museum and Galleries. They radiate from Jeremy Bear’s stunning creation, designed to evoke a household shrine for the annual Durga Puja festival.
Jeremy Bear - Craftsman with his Festival Gods, Goddesses and their Familiars
Jeremy Bear Spring Festival Dancer
Brightly hued portraits and street scenes by Jeremy, close by Sunara Begum’s drypoint and carborundum prints and Dunstan Perera’s monoprints, all in one way or another echo the remarkable photographs that Julia Margaret Cameron took in Sri Lanka. Curator Griselda Bear’s starting point for this exhibition was recognising similarities in the lives and work of the four artists: “Like the pioneering nineteenth century photographer, Julia Margaret Cameron, the present-day artists, Jeremy Bear, Sunara Begum and Dunstan Perera have strong links with the cultures and heritage of India or Sri Lanka and make work inspired by that part of the world - and they all also have a UK perspective,” explains Griselda. Julia Margaret Cameron was born in 1815 in Kolkata and had Indian, French and English ancestors. She spoke several Indian and European languages and was known for wearing Indian-style clothes. She lived almost a third of her life in India and Sri Lanka and in 1875 she finally left Dimbola in Freshwater for Sri Lanka. Jeremy has family links with India both past and present. Long visits to India, including filming the Durga Puja festival in Kolkata, have inspired his paintings, film, and installation in this exhibition. Sunara Begum was brought up in London in the traditions of Bangladesh and now lives in London and Jaipur. In 2018 she walked in the footsteps of Julia Margaret Cameron in Kolkata and Sri Lanka and those journeys inspired her prints and film in this exhibition. Dunstan Perera was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka and moved to London as a young man. A rare visit to his country of birth inspired the prints in this exhibition. The heliographic process he uses results in remarkable similarities with Julia Margaret Cameron’s much earlier images of people in rural Sri Lanka.
