Tsunami: A Patua Scroll Style Book

On 26th December 2004, a terrifying Tsunami struck the Indian Ocean. Moyna and Joydeb Chitrakar, Patua scroll painters from Bengal, have collaborated with Tara Books to bring out a Patua scroll-book.

Rendered by Patua scroll painters, Tsunami recalls a terrifying event in our common history. In the traditional manner of Patua art, this innovative scroll-book transforms dramatic news into a moving and artfully rendered fable. Dirge-like in tone and translated from the original Bengali, the Tsunami ballad evokes, as all ancient forms of keening do, the persistence of life in death.

The first Patua scroll to be rendered into the form of a book, Tsunami is silk-screen-printed by hand.

The extraordinary imagination of the Patua artists introduces an old fashioned empathy into modern reportage—and in the process, creates a moving tale that transforms the ephemera of newsrooms into art with a universal resonance.

Moyna and Joydeb Chitrakar are storytellers, both visual and verbal, from the Patua scroll painting tradition of West Bengal. This is their first collaboration with Tara Books. (Link)

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You can also listen to Gita Wolf from Tara Books talk about the making of this book. The book can be purchased here (Pssst: Tara Books is offering a 30% discount on all books and stationery purchased before 30th Jan, 2010)