In her first solo exhibition, Mumbai based artist Tina Chandroji places deities in shops selling items of daily use
“Roaming around the Indian markets one can find numerous catchy sights that make you want to preserve that moment,” said Mumbai based artist Tina Chandroji while briefing about one of her oil paintings. In her art collection, Chandroji is inspired by the Indian bazaars and chose to design different household shops on the cards such as flower stall, bakery shop, vegetables stall, groceries and liquor shops. But the centerpiece in each of these shops is a deity, often flanked by photo frames of dead and living ancestors of the shopkeeper.
“I chose to design these shops because these are the very common place. Everyone pays a frequent visit to the shops but the details always remain unnoticed by them and they never pay much heed to them,”
explained the artist.
Chandroji’s paintings depict a lot of serene images of deities from various stories from religious texts. She had chosen a different God for different paintings. For instance, in a vegetable shop she designed
Lord Krishna; in a bakery shop she designed Jesus; in an antique’s shop she took verses from the holy Quran; and in wine store she preferred to design Lord Venkateswara.
“As per our culture, it is believed that God helps everyone run their business. Therefore, you would find a picture of God in every shop. At the same time alongside you can find their ancestors’ pictures too.
Because in our culture our ancestors are considered equal to God,” said the artist.
Since childhood Tina Chandroji had a love for art that led her to JJ School, from where she completed her bachelors in Fine Arts. Later, after graduation, she worked as an assistant art director under Nitin Desai. But her inclination towards painting never faded and to follow her love for it, she is now working as an artist since 2008.
“I have been interested in creative work since my childhood days. During those days I used to do lots of drawings. Later on I opted for directing as it is also a creativity work. But my first preference will be painting only,” said, Tina Chandroji, whose painting collection was on display at Lalit Kala Akademi in New Delhi and inaugurated by Keshav Malik.
Appreciating the work of Tina Candroji, Keshav Malik said after inaugurating the exhibition, “Tina remains faithful to the feel of India, to its genius of decorating the most common place of objects.”
Rakesh Kumar
