A ‘Selfie’ on the Housing Board

Photography : Purushothaman Appu

Art erases every negative thought. It does the impossible. Chennai’s Kannagi Nagar may have been painted black and blue for a long time but today, the very same Kannagi Nagar is being painted all the seven shades of a rainbow.

With the permission of the Chennai Corporation and the Housing Board society, the volunteers of ‘Street Art India Foundation’ are painting the buildings in Kannagi Nagar with a variety of colours and pictures. Till date, the volunteers have transformed buildings with 14 gorgeous paintings. 15 artists from places like Australia, Canada, Switzerland, Spain and a lot more have completed 9 types of paintings in our very own neighbourhood along with the entourage containing artists from India too. The plan to complete the paintings has been set till March.

Some might think that the residents of Kannagi Nagar are tentative about these paintings but surprisingly, they are astonished at such beautiful creativity that everyone is curious for the end-product. The people moreover might think that these are just simple sketches on a wall but this street-art has helped the people from Latin-America gain many rights. In those countries, art is a way for artists to represent the citizens and help them with their issues and rights that it lead to a revolution. One might underestimate it to be simply a coloured wall, but art has literally shook the walls of politics.

Sadly, the walls of India for a long time have been caked with political posters, election announcements and the faces of cinema stars. Apart from these, the walls of the cities are painted with the faces of Gods and religious deities too. The modern art which was just heard of or seen from a long distance is soon spreading like wild fire around the nation and nothing could be a better news than that.

The modern art or street art which was found in cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Coimbatore is now seen in our own Kannagi Nagar in Chennai. It’s amazing to say that it has become a public attraction. It has reached a certain level where the art at railway stations and the lanes of Chennai seem so small in comparison to what is being done to improve the livelihood of the people of Kannagi Nagar. Their economy, culture and festivities are celebrated in a new way with beautiful hues.

The paintings which were once hung in galleries, are now glamorously shown to the world through the canvases of Kannagi Nagar. This is not a celebration only of artists, but also for a freedom for art because the way I see it, galleries too are a form of jail, aren’t they not?

When people are sad or depressed, the first thing they reach out to is Music. Thankfully, the colours presented by Art is also becoming therapeutic today. The colours residing amongst the people’s hearts is what made them appreciate art since the olden ages. Similarly, the people of the housing board community too have had a full blown impact and ecstasy of these paintings.

The great commercial monster - cinema, had been suppressing art for a very long time. And at the invention of Vinyl Plugs, most painters were economically and mentally disabled because manual labor is no longer required. But with the help of projects like these, the painters receive opportunities to express art in their own way. It’s safe to say that Kannagi Nagar’s art provides them hope and the hope should reach everyone.