India — a cradle, a continent, a culture… a medley of thousands of colours and millions of flavours. India, an idea. For five thousand years, this rich land has nurtured civilization. Silently, poised she has stood by the many moods of time and nature. She has been a bearer, welcoming people from lands near and far, of colours dark and light. Whoever comes revels in her fragrances and is immersed in her rhythms and lyrics. Where conquerors dug swords in her earth, she blossomed flowers and vines. Her riches, ancient practices and wisdom have brought utterance to many a wandering soul.

Where earth is the mother, the feminine principle; where the riverines are the nadi or channels through which flows life force, where the chakra (wheel) of time precipitates beyond the narrow walls of habit or reason… there breathes India. She has no beginning or end. In the history of civilization, India has always absorbed influences that came her way, that were thrust on her. She sheltered them and nurtured them, infusing her unique flavours to make new forms out of them. She has never stopped to flow.

Her majestic mountains, the kulaparvatas or the ‘sublime summits, have inspired the people of India as towers of dignity and majesty. The snow-clad Himalayas in the north are the ‘roof of the world’ protecting India’s rich plains from invaders as a fortress-like barrier; making the people of India a single great family.

Likewise, rivers in India have been greatly revered. They are considered holy in India. The most honoured is the Ganga, the celestial river. She flows down from heaven, from the feet of Vishnu, the preserver from the trinity of Brahma-Vishnu-Mahesh. As she flows through the Himalayas, the abode of Shiva, she is given course and her rage is reduced. This translates into the belief that the Ganga flows through the matted tresses of Shiva, where her ferocity is controlled. There are other rivers worshipped as sanct: the Saraswati, Yamuna, Godavari, Kaveri and Narmada. Worshipping them has special importance for the Indian devotee as the atmosphere on the banks of a river is gangayam ghosah or ‘the village on the river’; the microcosm of the universe in a cool and pure environment.

From the days of the Indus valley civilization that sprang on the banks of the Sindhu, the river in India has been thought as a loving mother, who nurtures her people with an abundance of water and insures fertility and prosperity just like the bodily mother, feeds her milk, the life-supporting nectar to her young ones.

Many moods, many flows characterize the experience called India. The only order in here is her chaos. One can resist it, but before long one is swept by her many colours, by her disorder — as though the mischief of Holi, the festival of colours, is a perennial given on this land. Pleasant, engrossing and inviting. It is said to know India one has to forget whatever ‘knowing’ means. A veritable feast awaits in this chaos. Numerous language, dialects, fabrics, foods, customs, practices, beliefs, patterns of living… India is plurality personified. And with every passing moment this plurality only multiplies. India is a seat of hybridity, where tradition encounters modernity, where cultures fuse into newer ones, where identities span moments of time that do not progress along a simple, straight line; where progress itself is more than the sum of advancement.

One can stand by the cool banks of the Ganga, but to experience her ferocity one has to dive in her waters, fall from her rapids and float on her soothing waves before she merges in the ocean. If a word could capture the experience of India, it would unequivocally be beautiful. But in India beauty is more than the sum of appearances. In fact beauty is beyond form or measure.

For centuries, it has been a living experience for the peoples of this land. A diverse and scenic landscape, ancient cities and remains, a panorama of art heritage and a wealth of mystical and spiritual sources of gyana (knowledge) have endowed India’s inhabitants with an appreciation that is far removed from form or physical attributes of the object of sensation. The dancing girl from Harappa, the meditating Buddha from Gandhara, Hussain’s seductive Gaja Gamini — these aren’t merely icons of different eras… they are moments of timeless celebration, of a deep splendour and magnificence frozen in a form. They encapsulate the melding of the seer, the seen and the maker.

Aesthetic experience in this ancient land is profound and extremely subtle. At its purest, most innocent, it is samarpan (surrender) and it traverses the journey from rupa (form) to arupa (formless).

Within this Oriental geography Gabriella Montanari moved from an Occidental terrain gabriellefour years ago. Like many a visitor she too was seduced by the sensuality of the land, the colours, the spirituality, the moods , and the plethora of materials which simply put wings into her creative expression.

Trained in the purity of the Italian Academy of fine art Gabriella with her sensitivity of spirit enters the domain of truth and beauty of India and empowers her singular voice with a potent fecundity.