Patnaik to showcase Mahatma through 'sand animation' at CWG opening

Patnaik to showcase Mahatma through 'sand animation' at CWG opening

Dhananjay Mahapatra, TNN, Sep 27, 2010, 01.36am IST


NEW DELHI: Sand animation art will accompany A R Rahman's theme song at the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony on October 3 to showcase a story on Mahatma Gandhi.

The Organising Committee (OC) has asked internationally acclaimed sand artist Sudarshan Patnaik to present his unique art at the opening and sources said he has agreed to take up the assignment.

Patnaik is in the US and is expected to reach India late on Monday. Incidentally, he won three medals -- Neptune's Choice, Sculptor's Choice and fifth place in North American Sand Sculpting Solo Championship at Virginia Beach. Eleven sculptors from across the world participated in the championship. Patnaik created a sand sculpture of Neptune giving a message -- "Save the sea from oil spill".

According to the OC, the plan to involve Patnaik in the opening ceremony was conceived after his students mesmerised the audience with their sand animation art on a reality TV show recently.

This art form is very different from the figures sculpted from sand on the ground or on beaches. In sand animation, sand is put on a glass slab with lighting from the top. The artists quickly work on it to form figures and landscapes. The images are relayed on to big screens for the audience. The lighting from the top makes the figures appear in a silhouetted form. After a while, the sand figures are erased and the artists quickly follow it with another set of figures and, in the process, narrate a long story.

What the OC has conceived and asked Patnaik to execute is a story based on Mahatma Gandhi, whose birth anniversary falls a day before the opening ceremony. OC sources said it wants the artist to synchronise the sand animation with Rahman's theme song.