KOCHI: Going viral on social media is a much sought-after happenstance for content creators across the board. 25-year-old graphic artist-cum-lawyer Akshay Jose recently got a taste of this rare fame and recognition when one of his illustrations on Covid-19 and lockdown was liked and shared by over 6,000 people on social media. Titled ‘Do we all float?’, the frame depicts the pandemic as the ocean with the coronavirus lurking in the background as a large sea monster. While the affluent float on symbolic boats of money, the migrant workers are seen drowning very next to them. Jose’s sense of apocalyptic doom spoke to online audiences trying to make sense of a macabre new world order.
“The lockdown resulted in loss of livelihood for many and when that happens, it is like one is drowning with nothing to hold on to. I was inspired by the movie ‘Titanic’, where the privileged managed to access lifeboats while many in the lower ranks drowned. The post brought a lot of followers to my handle,” says the Thiruvananthapuram-native who works at a corporate law firm in Mumbai.
Jose’s earliest memories of sketching begins when he was only five. “My grandfather taught me how to make an abstract drawing of Gandhi and over time it has become an essential activity for me. I probably prioritise it over food and sleep. I have to sketch once I get back from work, it is second nature,” he says.
After starting his Instagram page @linesbyjose a little over three years ago, Jose’s art has undergone a visible shift from early morbid doodles done in pen on paper to nuanced and thought provoking digital illustrations that often delve into social issues while also retaining their dystopian and spectral quality. His newest creations conjured on Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop are vibrant, graphic and pop-artesque merged with a fascination for the spooky.
“A majority of my early creations were horror-related, as I love horror books, movies and shows. But as I started educating myself about current affairs and other social issues, I started commenting about the same through art. It is the only prudent way for me to express what I feel. Words otherwise fail me. My time at law school also helped cement my socio-political ideology, so you will see my sketches dealing with class and gender norms while also retaining its sinister traits,” says Jose who has done multiple commissions for a LGBTQ organisation called Gaysi Family. He has also worked with art communities like Art and Charlie and the graphic design studio Kokaachi.
Now in Kerala due to the lockdown, Jose has extended his preoccupation with the eerie to weave a narrative about the mysteries of his homeland through his latest series ‘Ghosts of Kerala’. “I haven’t spent this much time back home since I left for college after school so I decided to harp back to all the creepy folk tales I heard from my father and grandparents and the Yakshi stories I read as a kid. These are quintessentially rooted in Malayali culture and an important part of my childhood so I decided to visualise them,” says Jose.