🇬🇧 An update on the North Pandal

The speed at which the work in the pandal progresses is truly impressive. I visited the pandal three days in a row this week. Once to take pictures and twice to work, and each time something new had been added or painted, so if my pictures seem to show differences in progress, this is why.

I arrived on Monday to find two armchairs and a coffee table attached to the ceiling!

How exactly they a) got them up there and b) managed to secure them, remains somewhat of a mystery to me, but I admire their ingenuity either way.

Besides this, new additions include a bookshelf above the chair and table, and two reclining figures on Van Gogh’s bed.

As expected, the colour scheme is tending towards blues and yellows, and more of Van Gogh’s paintings are being referenced; in particularly the sunflowers. When working there, I am seated with two art students as we cardboard and paper maché accessories (headphones, hats, vases…). One of them is apparently the designated sunflower maker, and was producing beautiful paper sunflowers at a frankly impressive speed.

One of many paper sunflowers

Cardboard and papier-mâché

Working on the ceiling

Painted table and chair

View of the interior

Progress on the cardboard wall

Though it is difficult to make anything out in this photo, these abstract figures will represent a husband and wife, both looking at their phones. When I came to help with the pandal on Tuesday, I was asked, somewhat to my horror, to make the heads of these two figures. I was expecting to do a spot of painting, or maybe make a papier-maché vase, so doing something this high stakes with absolutely no clue other than vague dimensions and a reference picture of what I was doing was somewhat more than I had bargained for. But, after some minutes staring in despair at the piece of cardboard I had been given, I went for it and was pleasantly surprised by the results. And I must admit that it is very cool knowing that something I made will be proudly on display in a Pandal.

I will most likely be returning to the pandal on Sunday, by which time I am sure it will once again have transformed. Before I go , here is an explaination the artist sent to me of the meaning behind the pandal:

Exterior of the pandal

1. সরবতো সংযোগে is the bangla for "all time on line", which is the theme for our this year's Puja and our pandal work exhibits exactly that.

2. We are surprised at how every aspect in our lives can be real just by the click of a button. That's the surprise element of everything becoming online.

3. In today's world, education, entertainment, treatment, travel and all other necessities of life can be availed by remaining online.

4. Only time shall decide the virtues or vices of remaining online in this complex world and we are not in a position to judge that either.

5. Our only effort is to make visible how remaining online has changed our lives.