BENGALURU: The world was in complete awe when British street artist Banksy drew an artwork, showing a child playing with a toy of a superhero nurse, on the walls of Southampton General Hospital earlier this month.
Closer home, city-based 3D artist Baadal Nanjundaswamy has also been quietly painting walls to spread awareness around COVID-19. His art is mostly inspired by issues which have cropped up due to the pandemic and also to send a message to people to stay safe.
During this current situation of panic, Nanjundaswamy says he likes to use his art as a form of language to express himself and also to urge people to take the right precautions. "People have stopped following social distancing, and I see many of them not wearing a mask either. My art is about reminding them to take those steps," says the artist, whose latest piece shows an emoji wearing a face mask, which he has painted on a wall in Koramangala.
Nanjundaswamy has also highlighted the migrant labourer crisis through his art, with works like the one depicting the story of 16 workers who were crushed to death by a goods train in Maharashtra, touching hearts all across. Ask him how deeply socio-economic situations affect him, and he says, "My art speaks for itself." He has created over 15 artworks around the pandemic, including the 3D art he made on the streets in front of his house to urge people to stay indoors amid the lockdown.
For the artist, who perceives the world as his canvas, the lockdown brought about its own set of challenges. "I ran out of painting supplies, so I just scribbled on the wall of my home to express what I felt," reveals Nanjundaswamy, who became an international sensation last year with his quirky ‘moon-walking’ video for which he dressed up as an astronaut to show the pothole-ridden roads in Tunganagar.
While street art has a wide reach, Nanjundaswamy has to take care about taking the required permissions before he starts his painting. He says he has so far painted on only two government properties with due permission, while the rest of the walls have been private spaces.
"When people learned about my art, they contacted me on social media to ask if I would paint on their wall too. If it works out, I reach there at a designated date and time to paint it," says the 41-year-old artist, who makes the murals all by himself, starting at 10am and finishing by the evening.
"I always plan a basic design and aim to finish one painting in a day. Also by finishing by 5:30 pm, I reach home by the 7pm deadline. But sometimes, it’s difficult to stick to the schedule with distractions like people stopping by to speak or click pictures, etc," he says.