Behind Bridge Bharat: Empowering traditional artists with QR codes

It is often that we look upon a piece of traditional art or antique, whether it is a Thangka or a Thanjavur painting, admire its artistry, completely oblivious to the artist’s hand at work behind it. But a new initiative called Bridge Bharat has changed things for the better for some generational artists and art forms in India.

Dinesh Soni Ji, a third-generation National Award-winning artist from Bhilwara, Rajasthan, is an expert in the 17th-century Pichwai art. His studio is in Bhilwara. Before the initiative Bridge Bharat, he would never have thought that his elaborate Pichwai paintings would now be traceable through a QR code that maps the provenance of the artwork and would tell details about its authenticity, creator information, materials used in the creation, its history and other contextual details.

Similarly, Padma Shri Lalita Vakil Ji, an embroidery artist from Himachal Pradesh, known for her intricate designs on Chamba Rumal created ‘Das Avtar’, which has a digital code that traces the provenance of her work. Customers will also now know that she is the first woman who introduced silk in creating large masterpieces of Chamba Rumal.

Aakanksha Singh, an art collector and enthusiast identified the problem of the unorganised traditional art market in India, leveraged her professional background in private equity to address this unique problem faced by traditional artists in India — that of anonymity. It is her mission to get them recognition for their work, and in return, a formalisation of the traditional art market in India.

When Singh started dabbling with art, she was quick to realise that while contemporary art by renowned artists like M F Husain and Raja Ravi Verma is easily traceable, traditional and folk art forms, often created by generational artist families, lack visibility and authentication. 

Bridge Bharat‘s ground-breaking approach involves creating ‘digital passports’ for lesser-known artworks, ensuring that buyers and art enthusiasts can access detailed information about the artist, materials used, place of origin, and the history of the artwork by just scanning a QR code. Currently operating from a gallery space in Gurugram, LuxeBook  spoke with Aakanksha Singh, Creative Director at Bridge Bharat for an in-depth understanding of her initiative in the space of traditional art heritage. 

How many artists have been attached to the initiative since you began?

50 artist families and 80 traditional artworks from India have been archived and traced for provenance.

Like Soni and Vakil, 50 artist families and 80 traditional artworks from India have been archived and traced for provenance. It includes ancient Assamese manuscripts, masks from the world’s largest river island of Majuli, Pichwais from Rajasthan, Chamba Rumal of Himachal Pradesh, Sikh miniature works, Bihar’s Madhubani art, Thanjavur sculptures of Tamil Nadu and Phad Chitra of Rajasthan, amongst others. 

I felt the need to “formalise” the traditional art space by building a bridge-to-luxury platform where we can preserve India’s legacy in arts with the help of technology.

In what ways do you support them and ensure legacy Indian artists get the right recognition and protect their copyright?

“There are around 4,000 such unique ancient art forms in India scattered across the country. It is difficult to find artists and curate such works. Another problem is there is no particular system to trace the provenance of such traditional artworks, many of which are lost as they do not have artists’ signatures. Further, with an increased commercial interest in traditional art forms, the number of intermediates, replicas, forgeries and counterfeits of original pieces has significantly increased, making it difficult to trace the original piece”

We check the quality of the artwork and the artist’s signature. If the signature is absent, we look for photographic evidence to ensure its authenticity and origin.

We then register the works with the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) as a requirement in order to trade in antiquities. If anyone wants to buy these artworks, we give them a certificate of authenticity. It is not a piece of paper, but we are mapping it on a blockchain where all certificates are signed digitally, to make the art piece an NFT.”

We cater to luxury buyers who seek authentic artworks. Most of the time they do not look for resale value. In fact, they want to own it to decorate their homes and spaces or keep it as an heirloom piece for the next generation. And since I have the technology to create such digital passports of the art, I want to give the world a gen-next way to interact with Indian art.

The process for identifying art forms across a country and identifying artists to procure artworks for their promotion typically involves several steps:

What does the identification process look like?

We usually conduct comprehensive research to identify various art forms prevalent across different regions of the country and  document details such as the history, cultural significance, and current practitioners of each art form.

We identify and map out artistic communities, clusters, or regions known for specific art forms and understand the local dynamics, traditional techniques, and contemporary adaptations within these communities.

We establish communication with local artists, artisans, cultural organisations, and community leaders and Seek insights into the challenges, opportunities, and aspirations of the artistic community.

The next step is to evaluate the quality, authenticity, and cultural relevance of artworks produced by various artists and we then Select artworks that align with the objectives of promoting diverse cultural heritage and artistic expression. We procure selected artworks through a fair and transparent processes that benefit artists and artisans and promote selected artworks through exhibitions, cultural events, digital platforms, and collaborations with museums or galleries. We also provide support for skill development, marketing, and networking opportunities to artists and artisans.

Plans for expansion?

Everytime we think of an expansion into any category or any geography for that matter we always go back to our north star — what the next 100 years of Indian arts look like? We as Bridge Bharat don’t want to concise us into paintings only because paintings at some point will have saturation in terms of how people are consuming the art. Art, Indian art can be consumed in multiple manner. We started our entire journey with paintings but now we are moving into things like sculptures, art installations, murals and jewelry. 

We don’t want to build this as a local brand. We do have a global vision.  One is of course the whole story with the authentication and the digital passports of Indian art, but we also want to make sure that there is design intervention that is being added from our end as bridge bharat into these products. So, going forward, for instance, at Serendipity Arts Festival, there is a cross collaboration between 3 artists for 2 different kind of embroidery and an art form that is Gond where the installation that comes out of it is completely different and very unique to Bridge Bharat. Contemporary forms overlap, material experimentations are the things we want to focus on, while keeping the essence of the artforms intact. So whether it is the essence of the chamba rumal, or the essence of the gond, it remains untouched, while we build on them and add value. We also plan to move into experiences in terms of AR, VR shows once the community is built. 

Share some stories of engaging with said artists in your work?

The most special story will always be the story of the first artist that we onboarded. This was in 2019 just before the lockdown began. There was an artist by the name of Lokesh Joshi who had reached out to us on Instagram when I had put up something from my own personal account. It was a picture of a Phad painting. He reached out saying, “Ma’am this is my work, where did you see it?” I told him I had gone to a show, where I had seen the work. I eventually ended up meeting him physically in his studio. That was my first interaction with an artform that had been confined to one family. I had never heard of the artform before and he started telling me about the stories how his journey as an artist began. His mother was who we met through Lokesh ji. She was actually the only female phad artist in the world.Phad as an art form was confined to the Joshi family in Bhilwara. It has always been the case that this art was not taught to the daughters or daughters in-law of the family because it was believed that it will end up being filtered to other families and the sanctity of the art form will die. The women were never taught this art before Lokesh ji’s mother. Her husband Kaniya Lal Ji Joshi was the first one to depart from family norms and say,”I want to teach my wife how to do this artform.” To date, I am sure she is the only female Phad artist across the world; she has built a name for herself in the space of art and I had an extremely special meeting with her. 

I’ve another anecdote of Indu Sharma who is a chamba rumal artist, who I met right at the early stages of our  work. Chamba rumal was the first art form that we started with at Bridge Bharat from a very serendipitous meeting. We were just walking down the streets and saw a really interesting artform. We ended up going from gali-to-gali trying to find these artists because chamba rumal is a community art with a very small set of women doing it. That’s how I met Indu ji as well at the time she was preparing one piece that she had been working on for the past 2 years for the national award that she wanted to submit it for. That was the first interaction I had with that art form. She worked very closely with her husband who was a pahadi miniature artist. A pahadi miniature painting which is also the base material for the chamba rumal; the embroidery is done on top of that. 

To visit Bridge Bharat find them at: B14/1, DLF Phase 1, Gurgaon or visit their online store.