Upon entering thehallway of any colonial edifice, be it commercial or residential, bits of tilealmost sewn together pop up at you and captivate the visual sense. Frombeautiful floral inlays, to carefully pieced work depicting a scenic setting,to even portraits, mosaic is an art form that has adorned and decorated theessence of these self-same buildings. However, with the passage of time, thiswork has chipped, cracked, and fallen apart.
Just as one would takecare of a priceless work of art on canvas, these floors merit no lessattention. Yet such maintenance is unheard of. When asked why this occurs,Bianca Menezes, a fine artist who has worked extensively with the art form,says, “There is, to begin with, a dearth of artists who know their stuff whenit comes to mosaic. Furthermore, procuring raw materials is a huge problem. Inearlier times, a lot of mosaic work was done by breaking the crockery availableat hand into pieces. In this day and age, no-one is going to destroy theirfinest china from a century or two ago in order to rebuild a floor.”
Art restorer and curator of the Goa Chitramuseum in Benaulim, Victor Hugo Gomes, expressed his views on the topic alittle differently. “Mosaic is a little known form, and a lot of people actuallystruggle to re-do existing work, when the key factor in the entire situation isthe maintenance of the existing timeless work,” he opines.
But perhaps the key lies in the generationof such knowledge, and how best to harness it. Nilima Menezes, an administratorat Sunaparanta “ Goa Centre for the Arts, explains how developing artists areattempting to learn more. “We have had a few upcoming artists in recent times. Oneparticularly promising artist in this area is a young man by the name of AadhiVishal. They seem keen on mosaic, and show immense promise overall. At themoment they are travelling to Delhi, in order to showcase their artistictalent,” she says.
Perhaps in Aadhi Vishal we should trust. Whoknows? Maybe the future is brighter. All one can say with absolute certainty,is that it makes for a better future when you know that the road ahead is tiledwith priceless artwork rather than merely paved with good intentions.
