A n explorer, a painter, a social worker, an artist, an avid traveller, a Tedx fellow and an occasional art director for ad fi lms, artist Poornima Sukumar believes that walls are her canvas. A fi ne arts graduate, the artist is no ordinary artist, she is an artist with a cause. Having worked on various community projects, including painting government schools, shelters for the homeless and walls in several cities, Poornima presently runs Th e Aravani Art Project. Her primary objective in this project is to organically create a space for the transgender community in the society using visual arts.
Talking about how she became familiar with the transgender community, the artist says, “It all began when I got an opportunity to work with a London based fi lmmaker on a documentary on the transgender community. Aft er the documentary, I had already decided to take the relationship that I built with the community to the next step. I realised that most of them were either begging or were sex workers to make ends. All I wanted was to start an endeavour that would help them earn a living.” Apart from awareness through art, the project has also travelled to several fl ea markets, where the Aravanis sell lemonade and Sulemani Chai.
Her recent work includes amazing wall art in Bengaluru’s St+art 2016 festival, supported by Asian Paints. For one of her recent art works she collaborated with a transgender called Nisha Gudlur. She reveals, “I painted a portrait of a transgender in collaboration with transgenders. I believe that creating art with people from diff erent communities has changed my life irrevocably.
Th is time my street art concentrates on gender neutrality and fl uidity. Th rough this symbolic art, I want to put out a message that states that everyone in the society has equal rights irrespective of their gender.”
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