THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Russian artist Olga Okuneva held an exhibition in Holland circa 2007. The title was intriguing, 'Sacred Groves'. Having never seen a sacred grove in her life, she had filled her works - paintings, drawings and prints - with real and symbolic trees from mythologies. Okuneva, who is here for a solo exhibition opening Friday at the Russian Cultural Centre, is determined that she would finally discover in Kerala what a sacred grove looks like. "It is my dream," she says, as she hurries about, deftly fitting her works into shiny-black, metal frames."Worship of trees was widespread in ancient times. It is still alive only in India," says Okuneva, who has plans to bring out a series of art works on the fast-disappearing patches of divine greenery. One place she intends to visit is Mannarasala, famed for serpent worship. ''Sacred groves are connected to ancient religion. Then, Christianity came. Here, the old religion has survived. In India, sacred groves are not a primitive concept, but a sophisticated one. They're not just clumps of trees here, but a part of literature and culture," says Okuneva, whose interests stretch into literature, especially poetry.In fact, her first visit to India was in 1996, for an exhibition of illustrations based on the Mahabharata. At the time, she had not heard about sacred groves. "Later, I read about them in an article on India in a Russian magazine." And from that moment, she was hooked. Speaker G Karthikeyan will open 'Hortus Botanicus,' Okuneva's exhibition of graphics, at the Roerich Art Gallery, Russian Cultural Centre at 11 am on Friday. The exhibition is on till November 16.
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