Boredom, from waiting forever to get past the TIDEL park signal during peak hours, forces this elderly woman stringing flowers to peep out the window of her Sholinganallur-bound MTC bus, and cop a look at a group of people painting a wall of Thiruvanmiyur MRTS station.
She is hooked by what she sees, and looks away only when her vehicle is on the move once again. It wasn’t just her. Hundreds of passers-by, all marching in a robotic rhythm towards their respective workplaces, pause a moment to stare at this portrait of Mithali Raj, captain of the Indian women’s cricket team. Raj, and a bunch of diverse cricket fans, will soon be accompanied on these walls by MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli. It is the Southern Railways’ bid to cheer Team India as they chase a third World Cup in England. Helping them realise this vision in mural form are a team of women and transwomen from the Bengaluru-based group, Aravani Art.
Stroke of confidence
You may ask, what’s so interesting about a bunch of artists with paint brushes sketching murals on a wall? For starters, the transwomen aren’t artists. They have as much to do with art as the average Chennaiite has to do with water conservation.
For instance, Samantha, 25, born Manikanda Prabhu near Natham in Dindigul, is doing wall art for the first time in her life. Is she anxious? “Not really. I just wanted to try it. In the [trans] community, we believe in the concept of trying things for ourselves. Because it is my first time, I’ve stuck to painting the shirts and collars. Going forward, I can paint with more confidence,” she says.
Nudging her on to the path of confidence is Sadhana Prasad, art director, Aravani Art. One of the key members of the group, which was founded by muralist Poornima Sukumar, Sadhana explains how she conceptualises her designs so that even first-timers find it easy to participate. “We try to maintain basic shapes, and we try to get form into these shapes. [The shapes are] usually a triangle or a rectangle. It is only a part, but when put together, they form a huge piece,” she says.
Aravani Art came to be in 2016, when Poornima, who was helping a British filmmaker reach out to trans communities for documentary purposes, figured art could add to one of the few opportunities of sustenance for transwomen. Today, the group has a presence in cities like Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi and Jaipur, besides Chennai, and so this is not the first time they are here in the city. They had earlier landed in Ernavoor near Thiruvottiyur in North Chennai to paint a portrait of Tara, the transwoman who, in 2016, suffered fatal burn injuries inside the compound of the Pondy Bazaar police station. Their vision? To gain recognition for transpeople as artists.
“We didn’t take to painting as a mark of rebellion or for sympathy. So, the quality of the work that we do is not going to be anything less just because a community that people didn’t expect to do arts is doing it,” says Sadhana.
Theory of social acceptance
While they do projects of their own accord, murals like the one at Thiruvanmiyur MRTS are commissioned projects. The fee may seem nominal, but the objective is to open up conversation, and, more importantly, initiate acceptance.
Take the case of Chandrika Narayanan. Born in the village of Midugarapalli in Hosur as Chandra Kumar, Chandri, as she prefers to be called, completed her Class X before her preferred identity became a problem for her family. “My family told me that if I got married, it would become alright,” recalls Chandri.
Two years ago, she met Poornima through her roommate. “I didn’t know how to paint. I was afraid. But she asked me to just give it a shot,” says Chandri. Today, she has enough confidence to guide other newcomers, like Samantha and her friend Draupadi.
Which artwork of hers does she like the best? “It was the one we did at Facebook headquarters in California. There were artists from around the world there, working on different art projects. But people at Facebook walked up to us and told us they liked our work,” she says, adding that things like these now make her family proud, although they still find it hard to accept her identity. “They say, ‘My son has gone to America’, and now they fully support my work. Society should look at us no differently. We are one among you. I’m a painter, an artist. Someone else in our community harbours a desire to become a lawyer or a doctor. We have dreams.”
Curiosity breeds conversation. Watching the team toil for over five hours did invite a few inquisitive eyes, but none in a busy city like Chennai wanted to engage the team with a few questions. But Sadhana is optimistic. “We don’t expect quick changes. When we took up a wall in Coimbatore, people walked up to us to ask questions because they were surprised to find women working on scaffoldings without fear. Meaningful collaborations will begin once they start to acknowledge us for our work,”she says. “For that reason, it is important we take up more big projects.”
