Brushing up a viral trend

Artists are a busy lot these days, using coronavirus as inspiration to express their feelings and create awareness about the pandemic
B Gowtham (left) and Arjun Raj with their artworks that are centred around coronavirus
B Gowtham (left) and Arjun Raj with their artworks that are centred around coronavirus

BENGALURU: Many in the city would have come across the popular video of the Bengaluru City Police staging a small street play about the COVID-19 pandemic. What caught everyone’s eye, however, was the ingenious corona virus helmet. The idea was the brainchild of Chennai-based B Gowtham, who first came up with the idea of creating an upcycled helmet that mimicked the microscopic coronavirus. “I wanted to use art to spread awareness about the pandemic. My whole intention was that it should be lighthearted but educative,” says Gowtham, who took five hours to finish the helmet.

Like Gowtham, Bengaluru artists too are spending the abundant time on their hands creating artworks that spread awareness and express their feelings about the pandemic. The result? Graffiti, paintings, animations, plays and more inspired by the coronavirus. Take, for instance, Anpu Varkey. The illustrator and visual artist says life for her has not been very different, apart from taking some necessary precautions. But the day she heard the news of Nadia, a four-year-old tiger from the Bronx Zoo in New York city being infected by COVID-19, Varkey has been a little concerned.

The pet parent of two cats wanted to move to some place safe where she can keep her pets secured. And that is what she tried to show in her 12-second animated video, which she uploaded on her Instagram. “When I read about Nadia, I felt like I should take my cats to a different planet to keep them safe,” says Varkey, whose video ends with the message ‘Outta here’.  Having been a street artist for more than a decade, Varkey has been trying her hand in animation since August 2019.

Members of street art group Kalakarah, who usually find their inspiration “out in the world”, say these days the only inspiration for them is COVID-19. The group have come up with a painting of a boy who is wearing a protection facemask with the message: ‘This too shall pass’.  “Like Banksy’s style of art, this too is made as a stencil. The original plan was to make it on a wall but right now we are running out of paint so we had to paint it on canvas,” say Vishnu Ambat, one of the members of the group. Like Ambat, all the other members of  Kalakarah – Arjun Raj, Sreekumar, Midhun and Akshay – are currently indulging in pencil art. “I am not sure what we are going to do without paints. If the lockdown continues we will probably continue with pencil art,” says Ambat, adding that he misses street art.

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The New Indian Express
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