With public areas shutting down in the wake of the Coronavirus spread, and people staying home, artists are using social media like they would a gallery space. There are the stills being streamed of course, but also short yet informative videos, with an emphasis on educating people about the artworks.
Today, on World Sparrow Day, Rupa Samaria, a sparrow lover who operates from her Shahpur Jat studio, will showcase her acrylic-on-canvas paintings on Instagram (@rupasamaria) and a short film on Facebook (look for A Bird Call).
“Today’s generation may not be as familiar with the house sparrow, fondly called chidiya by Delhi-wallahs who grew up in 1970s and 1980s. Sadly, with rapid urbanization, these tiny house guests have vanished from our lives. The sparrow is not just a bird but a sentiment attached to the place we call home. To recreate this sentiment, I am showcasing five of my best sparrows on social media,” says Rupa. Her paintings have touch sensors that play the bird sound via a tiny speaker, which she will demonstrate online.
Rupa Samaria
With a heavy heart, Rupa cancelled her second solo show, A Bird Call, to take place at the Visual Arts Gallery of India Habitat Centre hours after the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s announcement that no social event with more than 50 people would be allowed.
Female and male sparrows
Rupa feels that people can forge a connection with her paintings as they have been inspired from real life experience of watching house sparrows building nests on fans of her home at Patna’s Boring Canal Road. When she moved to Delhi in 1993, wondering what the new city would have in store for her, she was pleasantly surprised when she was greeted by sparrows in the morning hours. “Those days I was at Greater Kailash. This hide and seek with sparrows continued for 10 years.”
The bird was declared Delhi’s state bird in 2012 by then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit.
Her interest in birds was kindled when, as a teacher at the American Embassy School in Delhi, she accompanied students of Class V to Ranthambore for four years in a row. She took a number of photographs during these trips. This exposure drove her to bring alive birds on canvas.
