Dialog:Richard Long Jivya S. Mashe

In February 2003 Richard Long passed some time in the state of Maharashtra. He visited a number of villages and met Jivya Soma Mashe and the people of the Warli tribe. While he was there he created various works documented by a series of photographs on display in the exhibition. The two artists, highly appreciated in their respective cultures, were, however, unable to communicate with words, because Mashe only speaks the Warli language so they communicated above all through their art.nnThe artistic dialogue established between the works created in India by Richard Long, who used natural materials such as rice, ashes, water, or designed archetypical forms with earth, and the narrative paintings by Mashe performed with cow dung and acrylics continues in the exhibition mounted in the rooms of the PAC. Despite their differences, the works of the two artists reveal an affinity between their formal languages. For example circles and spirals occur constantly in both Mashe’s paintings and in Long’s installations. Mashe and Long also have in common an extreme sense or respect and sensitivity towards the earth, landscapes and nature. And there is another element that these two artists belonging to such different cultures share: they use the medium of art to throw a bridge between time and space, between past and present.