Pot Chitra: the oldest audio-visual medium of Bengal and its’ application in Fashion

Abstract

The paper attempts to study the importance of Art philosophy in the process of fashion designer. This goal could be extended to state that we intend to show the recognition of Folk Arts during all the developmental stages of Fashion Design. Folk Arts provide the proper understanding of the culture of a country and the nation. From that perspective, the Bengal Folk Arts are rich and diversely flourishing. Among the thousands of materials or objects in the Folk Arts it is not difficult to understand the stylish characteristics. The creations of art, its rhythmic outlines were attained by the artists aesthetic mind. Therefore, the mass, volume and types of art-forms can be found, such as, pottery, carpentry and engraving, architecture, metal crafts, shell crafting, ivory crafting, mask making etc. The expression media of the Folk Arts, such as, clay, wood, tapestries, canvas, masks, graffiti, carpentry and wood carving, folk architecture, embroidery, cork-crafting, shell crafting, ornamentation, metal craft, basket weaving, even the fishing accessories. Pot Chitra, the traditional audio-video medium of Bengal, displays a rich vocabulary of motifs. These motifs are deeply rooted in strong religious beliefs and underlain a strong symbolism. Identifying Pot Chitra as formalized folklore, the word Pot Chitra has been analyzed. The scriptural customs of picture painting and the making of elongated Pot Chitra have been discussed. . Though there are many works about Pot Chitra but none has worked with it mingled with fashion. So, the work is pioneer ever in Bangladesh. The Pot Chitra was classified into the contexts. Some primitive processes of making brush and the ink exist which are very own of the Potua. The processes vary in different districts. In some cases there are some similarities as well.