KOCHI: While he started his painting for pocket money in school days, Sanjay Kumar V, an independent artist from Fort Kochi never thought that he would play a crucial role in re-imagining the heritage city’s New Year celebrations. Establishing Dhruva Art Academy in Amaravathi, the 31-year-old has started an interesting habit of transforming untidy walls into colourful ones on every New Year.
Selecting an exclusive theme for every year, the artist and his 60-odd disciples have been painting the walls of Fort Kochi since 2015. “We have been colouring the walls of Fort Kochi for the past five years as part of the Cochin Carnival celebrations. Since 2015, we have been painting the walls based on a theme. We started with ‘Kochi is not a city; it’s a feeling’ in the opening year. Considering its success, we have decided to continue it every New Year.
Though the carnival was cancelled due to the pandemic situation, we have decided to paint as an effort to bring some happiness in the new year,” he said. This time, the theme is ‘Mysteries of Kochi’ — an effort to look into the mystic stories about the good-old Kochi. “Many of us grew up hearing several legends about Fort Kochi. We don’t know whether they are true or not.
They remain mysteries. So, we combined them with nature and finalised our designs. A major portion of the painting is in black and white to imply the theme,” said Sanjay. The demolition of three buildings — old port office, gear shed where ships’ accessories were stored, and coal shed known as Karippura which used to store coal for power ing ships arriving from Suez Canal to South East Asia — has dampened their plans for the new year. “We used to paint our graffiti on the walls of those buildings over the years. As we thought that the authorities would preserve them considering their heritage value, we painted them in early December only to end up seeing their ruthless demolition,” he said. These walls used to become an instant hit as it would attract tourists to pose for a picture in front of them.
“We have made it a point not to paint anything related to Covid-19. It seems to work as many have to visit the spot all day long. Many celebrities have also clicked photos and spent some time there. Though Carnival organisers used to support us financially, all expenses were borne by me this time. Around 15 of my students directly took part in the work. All of them started painting under me when they were five or six years old. Now, senior students are also joining me in the work. It’s still unfinished and we are spending four to five hours a day in the afternoon on it,” he said.
The group has also painted several graffiti across Fort Kochi turning the untidy areas into a colourful destination. “We painted the walls of a government LP school nearby last year. Maintaining a WhatsApp group, we are always in touch and devise plans to execute similar works on holidays. With another vacation period around the corner, we are hoping to start similar projects across West Kochi,” said the artist who works as a part-time painting teacher at a private school.
