3D street art protest that brings about a change
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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