3D street art protest that brings about a change

[Music]

how happy we are to have you here today

thank you for joining us at tedx punji

thank you well

uh badal is a person who always says my

work should talk and not me

and he was so very reluctant even to

talk to us today

so i said okay brother let us have an

interaction and

people are seeing your work and your

work is talking mother thank you for

joining us

so so mother

please tell me how did this all start

oh

sorry i’m very bad at talking i always

feel

my artworks are louder than my words uh

i studied fine arts like five years

in painting uh

[Music]

um while i was studying uh

i bought a petty shop like a

bidi shop so i

converted that into my studio

then

i used to work there this is why you

were studying

yeah so while studying like earn while

learning

you were learning well yeah so then

i had installed a huge holding

on that i used to write

slogans like i used to respond to the

current issues or like

social problems um

i think

that’s how my journey

began i would call that

as a graffiti but i didn’t know that

it was a gravity because i was just

learning that

i am lovely very nice you didn’t even

know what you were doing and you were

doing exactly no i was just writing

slogans so i was just

responding to the society

so how did this entire thing about

painting potholes

come into being i think you have seen

the 3d artwork

it’s called 3d street art

so it is like a an illusion

artwork i paint on a

flat surface and

when you click a picture that looks like

three dimensional

so that is

painting on a flat surface so

i practiced that and

once i saw

a huge pothole

in my surf mysore my hometown

near mysore palace i saw

yeah so then

i had this idea uh

i created i paint it actually i painted

a pothole

actually it was a festival time like

one of the biggest

festival in mysore right so

i i just wanted

the authorities to be fixed so

i painted it like a

swimming pool like something like this

not this this is in bangalore

i painted it like a

that was my first uh this thing uh i was

not uh

documenting it fine tuning like this so

i painted it like a pond then i had

written banni

what is bani kam

swim in kannada so

so the same day they fixed it

great yeah

so all how does all this happen i mean

how do you think of these things

how do you think of all these objects

being like this

objects like yeah i see things

differently like uh common people

you see some shapes like

some animals in the cloud like that so

i assume things i

so yeah

i see the different shapes and in

different objects you mean

you see different objects differently

than the normal people see yeah

i’m sure we definitely are seeing that

good so did you is it that just started

or did you have any kind of

uh a mishap that initiated you into this

or is there any story like that

okay

yeah okay when i moved to bangalore

i saw a

manhole unattended

and i wanted to do something

so it so it was like a

mouth waiting to consume people

so usually so the

i got the idea from the manhole

so yeah anything else that has happened

that made you to do more things like

this

uh after after all of this

i happened to ride back home from work

on

one night where i

met a minor accident

uh from the dysfunctional

road dividers so

that thing bothered me a lot so

i i wanted to create i wanted to

highlight

that so the next

day

i painted the the dry colors because

i usually i take

like current issues so it i think it was

on independence day so i i painted

the tri colors on the dividers yeah i

think this is one of your other dividers

during

some challenges

and this was like cricket match like rcb

in bangalore right so so you take the

current topic so i painted the

tri-colors and

yes again the authorities came and fixed

it

great i think it’s the best way to go

that’s lovely

so this is very interesting where did

you get this idea of

getting an actress to i think that’s

a well-known kannada actress right so

where did you get this idea of getting

her or even for that matter

you had a person acting like an

astronaut then you get these ideas

usually like i do

the

i do uh visit the pothole and

so the place gives you the idea yeah the

road gives me the idea the bad roads

and i wanted the

i didn’t want to paint that because this

was a

huge pothole with water

so i created this mermaid

i work for movies

often as an art director and so the

these actors are my friend

and uh i yeah i wanted a

live mermaid so i spoke to her

and we did it yeah i think and this also

makes people stop and watch on the roads

you’re seeing an actress sitting like a

mermaid

yes i i

intentionally uh doing it

to highlight imagine a

mermaid on a busy road

that’s like

[Music]

why crocodile i mean yeah yeah

i get weird ideas or

these illusions um

that is i think

the authorities i want to

make them smile

then fix it so i don’t want to

like i want to do it like in a peaceful

way

so the croco again the crocodile

on a busy road it’s like something

different so how do the authorities

react to this

obviously they laugh

and yeah and obviously they

they don’t like me no i think that’s a

nice thing that we need to learn from

you you know

you just make them laugh and get your

work done yes there’s no animosity in it

yeah lovely so what would you call

would you define your art in a certain

way would you call it something special

no actually i would call my

call my art just

it’s an artwork that’s it because

imagine a um

moonwalk

see sometimes i i just paint

paint the manhole with my brush

and sometimes i use the install

i do the installation and sometimes i

use the actos

so the

when they performing the moonwalk

it is it’s like a performing art

and when you click a picture of that

moonwalk that will become a photograph

like photography

art and when i make a video

again it’s a different like video art so

i don’t want to name it i just want to

call

this an artwork that’s it

and i think it also gives a lot of

opportunity for commoners who really

can’t go to these

art galleries and you know spend time

seeing art what is your thought about

this do you

have you thought about this in the sense

yeah seriously so

that is the reason

i take i relate i adopt the current

issues to the

artwork so that’s when i it was

chandra and everywhere so

that is when i did the

moonwalk thing yeah it is

easily communicative even to the normal

common people usually yeah everybody

can’t go to the

galleries i think

[Music]

indirectly um

making them to see the

heart right you can pass that message to

them

as well as they get to enjoy something

amazing

how is the response from public public

obviously you have seen it

so thank you

they always supported me

they love my artwork from all over the

world

and whenever i do the artwork

during daytime they even come and

control the

traffic because it’s not

not just my problem it is

everywhere and everybody’s problem so

they

support me great and

we do know that uh your uh

you know moonwalk went viral and has

inspired a lot

many people can you just throw some

light on that yeah

i never expected this like my

i just wanted to send a message

to the authorities in nama bengaluru

and this went viral globally

they recreated in bangalore kolkata even

mexico

and that is that made me very happy

yes your art is going global i just read

recently i think

as long as one and a half week back that

your

art work is actually being displayed at

london art gallery

so yeah that moonwalk thing

[Applause]

so it is displayed in

brunei gallery in london uh it will be

there

till 21st of this month actually i

wanted to go but because of this

[Music]

because the first time my artwork is

getting displayed

in the in london well i’m sure you have

your own

uh you know take out on corona virus

also

i don’t know when we’ll get to see that

from your side

but how does this make you feel going

global people

recognizing the art i mean

i don’t know because sometimes

i feel weird because

i every time i have to do the artwork to

point out there is a pothole

please fix it that is not a good thing

so yeah sometimes i feel

really happy because uh

i never expected this i i was

just painting so

uh if you put like heart like 100

percent like

i don’t know

if you’re very honest in your work

that will take you great

thank you so much thank you for joining

us it has been really amazing having you

over here

it’s a pleasure thank you so much and

all the best for your future

thank you so much thank you

[Music]