WHEN ART MEETS POLITICS
Client: Kannada Prabha (Regional Newspaper, Bengaluru), 2015
I was offered a monthly half page spread to share an artistic response to the ongoing issues within India. I was creating them for Kannada Prabha which has a huge readership across Karnataka. The idea was two fold: to connect with the urban Kannadiga population within Bangalore, as well as initiate a creative-political dialogue in two-tier and three tier cities like Gulbarga, Shivamogga, Hubbali, Kalaburagi etc.
The visuals were nuanced and layered with meaning. I used interwoven lines to sketch out the ‘Farmer Suicides’ patterned images of saffron coloured vultures and wolves to illustrate the ‘Murders of Indian journalists’ and the ‘Beef Ban’ was portrayed through a textured drawing of a human being depicted as livestock.
The news headlines or trending local stories were used to identify a new topic to work with each month.