Image Journey, an educative exhibition on influence of popular images on mass culture

Does art influence the society and its culture, or, does the environment form the art of its time? It is probably both. Serendipity Arts Festival presented Image Journey, an exhibition that critically explored the idea of popular Indian imagery at the turn of the 20th century in the construction of its social and national identities. Sourced from institutions like Swaraj Archives, Sanskriti Foundation, MAP Bangalore, the works were also borrowed from the collection of Priya Paul and Jain’s private collection. It included engravings, chromolithographs, oleographs, photographs, calendars, trade and product labels, postcards, film posters, textiles and porcelain figures.

“The exhibition demonstrates how the printing and mass circulation of images widely influenced the nature of belief and worship in India and eventually even acted as powerful vehicle in shaping the independence movement and the diverse ideologies of patriotism,” explains Jyotindra Jain, as he gives us a curated walk at the historic Adil Shah Palace in Panjim, Goa.