ARTIST SPEAK
Bengaluru-based self-taught artist Poornima Sukumar is an artist extraordinaire with a noble cause that involves creating a space for the transgender community through art
Poornima Sukumar explores the unexplored
An explorer, a painter, a social worker, an artist, an avid traveller, a Tedx fellow and an occasional art director for ad films, artist Poornima Sukumar believes that walls are her canvas. A fine 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 The 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 filmmaker on a documentary on the transgender community. After 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 flea 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 different communities has changed my life irrevocably. Th is time my street art concentrates on gender neutrality and fluidity. Through this symbolic art, I want to put out a message that states that everyone in the society has equal rights irrespective of their gender.”
“I believe that creating art with people from different communities has changed my life irrevocably."