Students put their best foot forward before graduation

As the graduates of Sarojini Naidu School of Arts and Communication at the University of Hyderabad get ready spread their wings and fly out into the world, they display their work in the DST auditorium, in an art show titled ‘The Flight – Up, Up and Away’. The young artists’ work speaks for itself as they pour their hearts and souls into their installations, which speak of the horrors of male chauvinism, harassment and even internal struggles, like conflicts between the self and society.

The class includes students from Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Assam, West Bengal, Odhisa, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Goa, Chandigarh and Chhattisgarh – the group together creating a mini-India by itself.

Afza Tamkanat’s installation, Ashes of Negativity – addressing the problems faced by the students themselves at the University – attracted a lot of attention. It consists of 40 terracotta pots with ashes inside them. The ashes were supposed to signify last rites and were accompanied by a note which stated: “I don’t hate you, but I respect me. Your comments, your opinions do not define me. I do not care what you think about me, because I don’t think about you at all. I cannot improve my work when I am surrounded with negative energy that only tries to bring me down.” Fawad Tamkanat told The Deccan Chronicle that the installment was in light of the agony and harassment the management of the university has put students through.

Also standing amongst their art work, on a rhino, is God of Shunya by the artist, Sujeesh Oncherry. He says it depicts how the emptiness he felt in Hyderabad when he first came from Calicut slowly faded away. “[The] rhino looks [like] a powerful animal but is not. I wanted to depict the emptiness and in India, one is never short of gods,” he says with a warm smile.

Karter Singh’s installment has brains and Gandhi topis made of plaster of paris strewn around. He says that it is supposed to signify how everyone says they are aam admi, but “when they see power, they worship it”.

Another artist, Atindra, showcases his life on a canvas with the simple title, ‘I’. The pictures are pasted on mirror pieces, cut as squares for “people to walk in and be a part of his life.”

The exhibition by these 34 young artists is on display until May 4th, from 10 AM to 8 PM at the DST Auditorium in the University of Hyderabad.