Ganesha, the most loved of all gods, became the centre of a mass art exhibition, says A Paljor
A part of what you see on the canvas was something I had decided upon earlier but when I started working on my canvas, I started borrowing ideas from different elements, from my surroundings and nature itself. I added patchwork and made it more abstract,” said artist Deepak Saini, who was a participant of the 45-minute live street art session that took place at Select Citywalk over the weekend.
The idea behind his artwork was to emphasise the concept of light, which lord Ganesha is known for. “I used a combination of red, yellow and white to highlight the bright part while black and purple stood out in contrast,” said Saini, who has done graffiti and used huge walls as his canvas in the past. Not surprisingly, working on a 4X4 canvas in the given time was not too tough a task.
Saini was one of the participants at the event where 10 artists were invited by Delhi Street Art to reinterpret lord Ganesha on canvas in 45 minutes. “Delhi Street Art is primarily focussed on creating unique and innovative art works on public spaces – garbage cans, walls, flyovers, bridges, train stations, prisons, markets, army vehicles and others. Each of these efforts provides the artists with a new canvas to express themselves and interact with a completely new audience – many of whom have had limited opportunities to see artists live,” said Yogesh Saini, founder of Delhi Street Art.
Another artist, Nisha, who is currently pursuing her bachelor’s degree in fine arts from lalit Kala Maha Vidhyalaya (College of Art, Delhi) was at home for the 45-minute challenge. “Personally, it was a fun activity more than a challenge,” she said.
Elaborating on her artwork, she explained, “I wanted to paint the essence of Ganesh Chaturthi and that’s why I decided to paint the face of lord Ganesha.” She painted her Ganesha patch on a smooth background.
Artist Rahul Chauhan pasted peacock feathers to reinterpret the elephant god. He conceptualised Ganesha as the epitome of godliness. “Peacock feathers are always placed on top. likewise Ganesha is always looked up to by his followers. Hence I twinned the metaphors,” explained Chauhan who felt creativity was all about being immersive and the time constraint really did not matter.
Chauhan is looking forward to pursuing his Masters in london. But his inclination towards art started manifesting itself in his school years. “I enjoyed working on figurative paintings and anatomy. Though people always asked me to concentrate on my academics, I looked forward to various competitions which gave me a real boost,” said the budding artist.
Raj Kanojia, another participant, depicted Ganesha surrounded by additional elephants. “I compared Ganesha’s face to a real elephant rather than following the trend of a porcelain perfect face with a unifying tone. Also, the additional elephants express the grandeur of his personality.”
Unlike other paintings, Kanojia’s canvas is more an amalgamation of applied art and visual communication as he uses his background of a graphic designer. For the past four years he has been attached to Delhi Street Art.
Saini is an engineer. “I have a degree in business from the US. I followed it up with consultancy work and then worked with some internet companies in California. But I was always interested in arts and in doing something more creative. The opportunity presented itself when I came back here. I wanted to do something different and instead of pursuing another profession or career, I started pursuing my passion.”
Delhi Street Art started nearly four years ago with him painting dustbins in lodhi garden. The whole idea came when Saini returned to India after living overseas for few years and rued the absence of colour, creativity and public art in our urbanscapes. “We decided to take a positive initiative, bringing in more colour, art and dignity in public spaces, be it dustbins or walls,” he added.
They have also done other innovations too. “Few years ago, we used army trucks and jeeps as a canvas for Kargil Day and last year we were at the train station in Narela. The idea is to let people engage more in public spaces and develop an idea of art, which is still mainly confined to galleries,” said the founder of Delhi Street Art.