British folk history on exhibit

A scarecrow that resembles late pop icon Michael Jackson clutching a stuffed monkey and a 'Burry Man' sculpture of a man wearing a bodysuit fashioned out of prickly flowers find place among assorted items at the 'Folk Archive' exhibition here.
Photographs, sculptures, banners, drawings, paintings, film, performance and other "astonishing" objects that define a vast range of British pastimes and pursuits and that fall in the ambit of folk art fill up the exhibition space and walls at Mati Ghar of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts.
The bric-a-brac collected by artists Jeremy Deller and Alan Kane have, they say, toured many countries including Switzerland, Brazil, China, France and Serbia. It has been brought to India as part of British Council's "Museum without Walls" project.

"The collection looks like art but it has not been made by artists," says Kane about the archive that contains close to 300 items collected over a period of six years.
The exhibition that held viewings in Mumbai and Kolkata is set to conclude here on February 27.
Among the exhibits is a pair of purple knickers from a traditional form of wrestling practiced in the north English counties of Cumberland Westmorland and Northumberland where men and boys slug it out in improvised wrestling rings, wearing embroidered velvet knickers over white leggings and vests.
Talking about the 'Burry Man' sculpture, Kane says "There is no rational function. The sculpture has no function. It is an old retired lost in time tradition, nobody knows why they do it."

Pointing to a video and pictures of the World Gurning Championships held in Egremont, he says, "This is like an anti-beauty contest where you have to make yourself look ugly.