Breaking free with art

Breaking free with art
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Highlights

Krishnakriti Foundation’s initiative ‘Beyond Bars’ showcased a number of artworks produced by the Chanchalguda and Cherlapally jail inmates at Kalakriti Art Gallery recently. Artist Sayyad Shaiek represented Krishnakriti Foundation to give art classes to the inmates. The exhibition was inaugurated by IPS officer, Rajiv Trivedi. 

An exhibition of artworks produced by jail inmates is all about the essence of freedom

Krishnakriti Foundation’s initiative ‘Beyond Bars’ showcased a number of artworks produced by the Chanchalguda and Cherlapally jail inmates at Kalakriti Art Gallery recently. Artist Sayyad Shaiek represented Krishnakriti Foundation to give art classes to the inmates. The exhibition was inaugurated by IPS officer, Rajiv Trivedi.

“I’m really amazed by the artwork produced by inmates. These works are very sensible and creative. They have expressed their inner feelings through art,” said Rajiv Trivedi. “When we met the prisoners there was hesitation and fear among them. Later, in the interactive session, they expressed their inner feelings, interest, and what they are passionate about.

We found that most of the prisoners were passionate about art, so we used ‘art as the medium to break the silence’. We trained them for about six months. Then they started reflecting themselves through lines and colours on paper and they became transparent,” said, director of Kalakriti Art Gallery, Prshant Lahoti.

Artist Syed Shaiek who trained the prisoners said, “It all started when director Prshant Lahoti asked me to train prisoners at Chanchalguda Central Jail. I was little afraid in the beginning and excited as well. Vinay Kumar Singh (Deputy General of Prisons, Telangana), Prshant Lahoti and Dayya (Superintendent of Prison) encouraged me a lot. They provided nice classroom, infrastructure, etc. I taught the inmates basics in the beginning.

Initially, they were not much interested in arts and I asked them to observe the objects. Then I found that they have creative ideas and from that point, they would easily follow my instructions.” Most of the paintings include beautiful landscapes, with open sky, field, etc.

These landscapes are not just the sky, land and house; one can see layers of meanings in them. They used landscape as a metaphor for freedom. Also, there is a sense of realisation that we can see through the portraits of gods and goddesses.
At - Kalakriti Art Gallery Till - 29th June Timings – 11 am to 7 pm

By Heena Mishra

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