the deep
TARABOOKS X VAYEDA BROTHERS
&
AWASHIMA ISLAND
Copyright © 2019 Tara Books Pvt. Ltd.
For the text: Gita Wolf from an oral
narrative by Tushar and Mayur Vayeda
For the illustrations:
Mayur Vayeda and Tushar Vayeda
Tara Books Pvt. Ltd., India
< www.tarabooks.com >
and Tara Publishing Ltd., UK
< www.tarabooks.com/uk >
Design: Dhwani Shah
Production: C. Arumugam
Screen-printed and bound by
AMM Screens, Chennai, India.
All rights reserved. No part of this book
maybe reproduced in any form without the
the prior written permission of the publisher.
isbn: 978-81-939841-8-5
V A Y E D A B R O T H E R S
When we first saw the stunning final image in this book –depicting marine creatures in the sea in Awashima together with the waterlife found in the stream in Ganjad – we felt that there was a captivating story behind it waiting to be told. The conceptual brilliance of this image is what led to the making of this book. We worked together with the Vayeda brothers to come up with a narrative framework to provide context to this image. The visual travelogue and text are based entirely on their oral tales and notes. The book includes images specially drawn for the project, and the art not only adds to the narrative but lifts it to another level, transcending the deceptive simplicity of the story. It is brilliantly allusive in its depiction of a complex journey: not only of the brothers themselves as artists and human beings but in a larger sense, the progress of an artistic tradition. This is how an art form grows – in the hands of responsible yet adventurous artists – who take it from the known to the unknown, without losing its moorings. The art in the book doesn’t just describe, but actually embodies this journey – beginning with a fairly traditional depiction of the stream in Ganjad, it moves on to the architecturally inspired lines in the Mumbai spread, which then loop back to the organic termite hills that symbolize the village. The artists add layers of meaning and complexity as they (and the book) move into the distant waters of Japan. Awashima Island appears to be floating, yet rooted to the depths of the sea, populated by plankton, bamboo, and the wild boars which are symbolic to the island. There is a lot to be discovered in this spread. The image which follows – of the two fishermen on the surface of the water – is in a sense the opposite, quite sparse and allegorical in the way it explores the idea of common humanity. In the final breath-taking image of the book, the water creatures of two different landscapes and contexts swirl around each other, circling the depths of all that is unknown to us.
- by tara BOOKS