Canopy of prosperity :The banana tree

IAF DIARIES 2022 : ANKON MITRA’S BANANA TREE 

Kadali Vaatika (The Canopy of Prosperity)

Artist and bespoke furniture diva Laila Khan flew down from Mumbai and walked into Art Positive Booth at the IAF. She stood underneath the banana leaved Canopy of Prosperity and spoke of her art journey and expressed a desire for me to curate her show. 

Laila the daughter of Feroze Khan one of my favourite actors spent time basking in the beauty of Ankon Mitra’s trees. “ I love trees anywhere all the time, they speak to me like no human can.” Laila’s words brought alive Ankon’s words when he wrote in his reflections of his IAF Show titled The Forest of the Mind.

“ My forest is a network of folds everywhere. When I look up inside my forest, dappled sunlight sieves through the pleated leaves of the trees. The Japanese call this filtered light - Komorebi. The trees are chanting the rimes of my ancient land , my soul pulses to their rhythm. I resonate and dance to those vibrations, flowing into a state of bliss and ecstasy. Some of the trees are as old as time itself, they are the immortals, the thoughts of my grandfathers and grandmothers, and their grandfathers and grandmothers before them. In their vicinity are fresh young upstarts, formed from their seed, my mature thoughts and ideas, fresh and not so wizened, yet their young roots are connected into the rhizomatous ancient roots of their forebears, a deep unseen connect, hidden within the earth of the forest.”

 Ankon went into deeper dictates : Some recurring thoughts and attitudes are positive and healthful - strong trees vibrating with life. Others are negatively charged tangles of decaying driftwood and dead leaves, rotting from the inside out. In the blink of an eye, your mind becomes the metaphor of a forest. Wherever you look, you are in the midst of sights, sounds and the smells of a forest. Think. Close your eyes and imagine. What does YOUR forest feel like?                                            

The Canopy of Prosperity made with Kerala kasavu saris and folded added a tint of antiquity and organic aura. The origami shone between the folds as a Japanese accent of the dynamics of design. The folds spoke of the past and the present.We watched each day as viewers and art lovers and gallery Directors came and stood under and clicked selfies and swooned. The beauty of this tree was the awe and curiosity it evoked. Subodh Kerkar enjoyed this booth and we were deeply grateful for his precious time spent with us.Aban Desai a gorgeous Parsi from Kolkata came and stood in a delicate denim ensemble looking a Venus of the past.

   No part of a Banana tree goes waste, from the trunk, to the flowers and of course the fruits, nearly everything of the plant (except the roots) is eaten. The fruits are a super food and an instant energy booster, the most fundamental source of nutrition which helped us evolve from the simians we once were to the Homo Sapiens of today. The leaves are used to eat on, as an auspicious canopy under which wedding vows are propitiated and as the most ancient and sustainable form of packing, steaming and cooking varied sweetmeats and produce of the sea. It was not be wrong to say that we’ve held the Banana tree’s ‘hands’ to make our journey from the wilderness into civilization. Pleated and folded Kerala Kasavu Sarees with a banana fibre blended in the cotton, with illustrations and graphics of verdant banana groves (with monkeys cavorting in them) complete this joyous installation, the artist’s humble tribute to one of nature’s most magnificent gifts to humankind.