“I don’t want to be a gallery-hopping artist,” confesses Gunasekaran. The artist-in-residence fellow of JV Art Foundation has travelled over 18 districts in the state and has reached out to 3248 marginalised children with his art. “It is both capacity as well as confidence building exercise. The purpose of any art is to reach larger audience and it cannot be exclusive,” he says.
For long, fine art stays as a neglected part of the school curriculum. Formal education has a pedagogue that mainly confines education to literacy and numeracy based knowledge where fine art is not given importance as any other subject would get. “Art teaches a person to look inward. Self-realisation becomes imperative once you are engaged to art. If you really want to enrich the life of an individual, you need to educate emotionally. This kind of artistic exposure is capable of improving children’s emotional IQ,” says T. Chinnaraj Joseph Jaikumar, Managing Trustee of the foundation.
Why children from marginalised society? “Children living in any marginalised society suffer serious deprivation economically and socially. These factors have negative impact on them. It is easy to see the anger, frustration and meaningless rebellion in those children. Here I see a positive role visual art could play. It helps them come out of their frustration and anger and guides them to aesthetically express their pent up emotions. What we do here is social scripting through drawing and painting,” he says.
Dr. Chinnaraj drew inspiration from what he saw during his recent visit to Greece. “The country was going through economic depression. People were just making one third of what they were earning in previous years. Walking through the streets of Athens and Corinth I could see graffiti art everywhere. Then I found out that it was one way of positively channelizing the energy of otherwise rebellious youth. This is positive scripting,” he says.
Gunasekaran makes children to work together in community. During his assignment, he has visited numerous tribal hamlets including Lingavadi, Aasanoor and Sholarkanai in Sathyamangalam forests. “It was not easy initially to get closer to these children. I played games with them and asked them about their popular games and learnt their techniques. I moved very closely with them. We also sang and dance together. I wrote few Tamil songs and made them sing. They felt very comfortable and cooperated with me. I spread a sheet on the floor and asked them to draw whatever they wanted to,” he says.
In Perambalur, Gunasekaran has made 350 children work together simultaneously and created series of drawings on 150 metres-long canvas. It was all about existential experience. The children portrayed what they had seen and experienced. “From dirty locality to dusty street and huts they can draw inspiration from their own experience. We can only empathise and depict as it is not in our consciousness. Even if a handful of artists emerge out of this lot it would be a great success. Cumulatively it can contribute a lot in a course of time,” he says.
Within a year of its inception, the project has brought a big change in the mindset of the underprivileged children. Instead of spreading out, the foundation wanted to continue the project in nearby slum areas such as Karumbalai, Tallakulam Kanmoi and Meenakshipuram in the city. As part of the project, the drawings of children of 5 to 14 years and the artist-in-residence were exhibited. “We are making arrangements for regular follow up in tribal areas. In the meantime the project will continue in the nearby centres as it can be much more intensive. This project is my dream and wish it continues,” says Gunasekaran.
