There is a proselytizing zeal in C.D. Jain’s tone and tenor when he speaks about his art. What he seeks to achieve is a transformation in every child he comes across: restore to them their childhood, sensitise them to their immediate environs, give them a meaningful today. Art, for him, is not a baring of his soul. It is also a means to reach out, to tenderise the minds scarred through adult intervention. His works intercede the mental space to act as a balm, to heal and restore the twinkle in their eyes and a spring in their steps. There is the unmistakable sombre mood to his works on display at the Gorky Bhavan in the capital city. I feel like an intruder when I walk into the gallery – he has a dozen children between the ages of six and 14 around him and is engaged in explaining to them what differentiates each cluster of frames from the next.
The child educator in the artist, who believes in the therapeutic effect of art, does not have the attitude of a patronising elder talking down to the young children. The exhibits here carry the baggage of his long years spent using art as a medium to communicate with the child.
The first in this series worked on with charcoal, pencil and dry pastels on paper, wears the lost and forlorn expression that mars the child. Seeing God in the child is the best way to explain a set, which has every face set against the background of the Cross. “This is meant to symbolise the tribulations the tender soul counters in life, and I hope it would serve the purpose of reminding the elders to be protective about the young ones, rather than violate them.”
The face of a 16-year-old HIV-afflicted girl he met years ago finds a place as an unhappy memory, says Jain. “I did this particular one not just to disturb the viewer, but with the hope that it will deter anyone who carries this in the memory from snuffing out the little girl by physically violating her.”
The homeless and hungry child, child prostitution, child trafficking, the paedophile’s prey – Jain carries impressions of the young he has been interacting with since the late 1980s when he started art workshops among children to sensitise them.
The ‘Benign Forest’ series, worked on with fine details, move away from the rest of the paintings. The colours draw us towards it. There is gaiety in the air and the mix of the frivolous children swaddled in the lap of Nature takes the mind off from the despondency that is a permanent fixture on the faces of these children of the lesser god.
Every third child has the innate quality of art in her. In most cases, however, it gradually gets obliterated as she grows up, no thanks to the process of ‘growing up’ and the ‘education’ imparted by us elders.
The 35-minute art classes held once a week does not help nurture the aesthetic sensibilities in the children, says Jain. His mission is to compensate for this lacuna through week-long workshops for children. This intensive session acts as a booster-dose and sustains their interest in art. Jain takes a leaf from his own life to explain the need to make art education meaningful.
“I was a rebel at home, a rebel in the classroom. In my early years my interest in art was not well received. I was 23 when I entered the portals of the College of Fine Arts in Thiruvananthapuram to pursue my passion. I realise the need to tap the flair for art very early in the child. For two years I travelled around the country to get closer to the child and bring them closer to developing interest in their own artistic expression.’
Art workshops with children through the UNICEF, Save the Children and World Vision, as well as independent sessions in schools have given the artist-art educator a dream – “to build a gallery that will house art works from across the globe, which have children as its theme, and thus reach out to the child.”
