Indianama - 2016
The creative agency Animal launched a project in 2016 for capturing the 69 years of India's independence since 1947. Hence, they invited 69 artists from various fields and gave them the creative freedom to interpret one particular year by taking a certain event from it and representing it their particular style.
I took the year 2014, where the general elections in our country were held and the BJP led NDA managed to come to power with a majority in the Lok Sabha (Lower House of the Parliament). This year had particular ramifications for the entire country for it was the first time since 1984 that a political party had come to power with a majority on its own. Also this election revolved around one person as opposed to the collective political party.
Post the election there were a series of communal incidents that raised old rooted fears that this government had a hidden agenda of supporting a certain religious section of society over another and were interested in reviving a fictionalized concept of India. The vote was primarily given in the hope of more jobs being created and also in seeking a solution for institutional corruption, which has been plaguing this country for decades.
I felt there was an opportunity to capture the general sentiments of the people (pre and post election period) in one artwork. To help accomplish my task, I studied esoteric symbols and mandalas. I decided to represent an incomplete birth. A new being/entity being resurrected with the sentiments of the people. But at the same time one can notice a that the entity is deformed by the winds of time which have blown away certain parts of it. Earth (the people) would be an element present below with air (the aspirations) present above. A mandala was added to signify a sense of creation and destruction, the continuous cycle of the five year election period with new hopes and dreams.
Overall at some level I feel that fine art is an extension of your lived experiences as a human and ceases to be cerebral. Hence I do not prefer giving overtly long explanations into every aspect of my drawing.
Details and WIP sketches
Please do visit the link - https://www.weareanimal.co/indianama-2016/ - and check out some of the artists who have done some brilliant work on this project!
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