Echoes of Tradition and Emotion: Kanak Chanpa Chakma’s masterpiece Festival Time

Monisha Dipannita

Kanak Chanpa Chakma, renowned artist from Bangladesh, is famous for her ability to portray Indigenous identity narratives and traditions through her creative process. Her unique creations contain bold colours, intricate details, and evocative portrayals of human connections. One of her masterpieces, Festival Time, captures the vibrant essence of community, culture, and celebration. This painting is not just an art piece; it reflects joy, unity, and cultural festivals. This article considers the deeper essence of creative expression and emotions and reveals Festival Time’s secrets.

Kanak Chanpa Chakma’s Festival Time depicts the vibrant colors of the festival, togetherness, and culture of the indigenous people. The painting depicts a lively moment of togetherness, where individuals gather in harmony to celebrate a cultural festivity. The vivid imagery of people in traditional costumes, intricate patterns, and dynamic postures reflects the uniqueness of Chakma culture. Kanak Chanpa is also known for depicting women of her culture. Main characters of Festival Time are depicted sitting in a harmonious position. Their collective participation symbolizes the strength and bonding of the community.

The painting is intricately detailed. The viewer’s eyes will first point to the three women sitting in the front, joyously interacting with each other. The woman on the right side, raising two hands on her head, has the utmost attention. The artist created a light on her face and shades around the figure that create attention and focus. The decorative forms in the background, done in green and yellow, are primarily triangular. The intricate details of the traditional ornaments have circles, ovals, and other geometric shapes. The negative space between the figures also has triangular shapes.

This artistic creation is asymmetrical. The three women in the front are done in such a manner that if the painting were divided into two parts from the center, the two parts would not be similar to one another. The women on the left sitting and interacting with the two women on the right side differ in proportion and position. Figures in the front create a linear perspective. The use of color and intricate details create an aerial perspective. The artist used her unique techniques to create an illusion of depth, volume, and sense of atmosphere. She applied colours so that the perspectives were perfect to create depth, volume, and scale. The atmosphere in the painting of the festival and the distant decorative forms above are done with the proper perspective. These show depth, distance, volume, far-near, overlapping, light, and shade. All these impressions are created with the appropriate application of color.

Kanak Chanpa developed her style through continuous practice. She found great inspiration from the legendary artist Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin, who was a French post-Impressionist artist. His experimental use of color and Synthetist style were distinctly different from Impressionism. His works featuring the lifestyle and people of Tahiti, influenced Kanak Chanpa. Her artistic journey found the path when she saw his works at the Louvre. She explains that her work does not follow the norms of modern ‘isms’ but rather is a style of semi-realism and semi-abstraction. It is contemporary yet ethnic, traditional yet modern. With her experimental knowledge, she creates vivid and colorful paintings. In her artwork, colors are more vivid. In her painting Festival Time, she used a vibrant color palette of red, yellow, and green. These dazzling colors express the life and emotions of the painting. The red color in the painting Festival Time represents culture’s joy, celebration, and richness. Kanak Chapa Chakma uses a vivid color palate and a huge amount of colors. She uses complementary and contrasting colors to create atmosphere, depth, and volume. This artwork is rich with vivid and thick colours and is done with the proper value of colours. The light and shade are applied with the appropriate color valuation. The highlight on the faces of the three figures creates a focus point. The darker value of the red color creates depth and overlapping of the figures and the clothes, ornaments, and other objects. Artists’ own unique style of applying colours created different values of colours that helped to create depth, volume, and shade.

Kanak Chanpa Chakma is the icon of the Chakma or the indigenous people. She portrayed cultural vibrancy and human connection through her painting Festival Time. The painting reflects the diversity of culture and tradition through the rich colors, intricate details, and emotive composition. It draws the viewer into the world of a communal festivity, highlighting indigenous people’s traditions and unity. It also shows the power of art to preserve and celebrate heritage. As an influential artist, Kanak Chanpa represents her own identity and culture of Rangamati, where she saw the sorrow, struggle, beauty, and joy of the people. Those observations are presented on canvas. Her art expresses her passion and bold emotion for her roots. She developed a special theme for her artwork with her unique style. Her artwork is exceptional in all scale, depth, and volume, as she creates an emotional bond with the audience through her art.