The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Colour fades out of their career

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Tuesday, Mar 17, 2009
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Colour fades out of their career

Meera Srinivasan

— Photo: M. Karunakaran

WORRIED LOT: Wall painters and graffiti artists are battling limited opportunities. Artists at work near a house in Palavakkam village panchayat on Sunday.

CHENNAI: Around election time, there is one group that is, perhaps, as anxious as the contesting politicians. Wall painters and graffiti artists are a worried lot ever since the model code of conduct came into force.

Anxiety ahead of elections is not new to artists, though. They have appealed to the Election Commission to lift the ban on graffiti ahead of elections held earlier, too. However, artists were particularly looking forward to this election, the first one after the ban on hoardings came into effect.

Earlier this month, Chennai Corporation commenced a drive to clear its properties of political graffiti. The civic body had also said that private walls bearing political messages and images would be whitewashed. Tamil Nadu Open Places (Prevention of Disfigurement) Act, 1959 empowers authorities in the city to remove political graffiti.

N. Sanjeevi of Hermon Arts in Perambur has been in the profession for nearly two decades. “We always eagerly look forward to elections, as that is the only time when artists like us make a substantial money,” he says.

The artist, who has a family of five to support, is worried about his three school-going children. “We have no orders this season and I don’t know how we will manage.”

Families of several hundred artists have been borrowing heavily to make ends meet. S. Natarajan of Thiruvannamalai comes to the city if there are orders here.

“I was hoping to make some money this summer and repay my loans, but now, it is highly unlikely,” he says.

Usually, political parties identify and book space on walls in different localities and then approach artists, who paint them with names of leaders, messages or portraits. After the invasion of digital banners and the ban on hoardings, opportunities became very scarce for this clan.

Artists, who were earning about Rs.150-Rs.300 every day, are now finding it hard to make half as much.

According to State president of the Tamil Nadu Artists’ Association J. P. Krishna, there are about five lakh artists who depend on wall art and graffiti. “We have appealed to the Election Commission to relax this ban, as it is a livelihood issue for artists,” he says.

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