On 26th February 2012, Bornfree Art School organized the first art exhibition at Art 9, Kala Soudha, Hanumanthnagar, Bangalore. The theme of this art exhibition was “ Freedom from Toil~Good Life, Bad Life”. The initiative came from a British artist, Ms. Sadie Few who has worked with children of Bornfree for a month to teach drawings and painting. She has taught 20 children so far and made them come up with a beautiful and significant theme of their life. Visitors from Australia, Japan, Slovenia, Slovakia, Poland, England have also witnessed the exhibition.
The students of Bornfree expressed themselves through their paintings and brought good and bad experiences of their lives in these paintings. The students at Bornfree were former child labourers and street children, but now they are freed and go to school with a dream in their eyes. This art show was a platform for these young kids to showcase their talents and tell the whole world their struggles with life. The paintings here portray both good as well as bad experiences of their life. Children of all age group had displayed their work and even spoke about it very confidently. The paintings actually helped them to express their thoughts and feelings. These children were forced into child labour either by their family or due to no other options left to them. Through these paintings they also want to tell the world to Stop Child Labour and allow them to flourish.
Most of the kids have expressed schooling and education as a good life. Some of them said that good life is nature, love, flower etc. Bad life consists of violence, smoking, killings and steeling. Each and every painting showcased in this exhibition had a real life story to tell.
A little girl, Meena and Shilpa sold roses on the traffic signal to take care of her ailing grandmother. They used to earn Rs.300 per day. But now with the help of Bornfree, she no longer sells roses but goes to school. Marappa was also selling toys on the road for livelihood but now after coming to Bornfree he enjoys painting and wanted to become an artist one day. He has witnessed his own mother burnt herself in front of him and was forced into labour for father’s drinks. Such are the stories of these young children who have gone through so much in life.
Subramani’s painting tells us a story about the life of women. According to him, a woman’s life after marriage is not as bright and colourful as ever. In one of his paintings he tries to showcase how a girl’s life would be changed completely after marriage. How the husband treats her, how much pain she has to go through in her everyday life, how she sacrifice everything for the family and so on. He could imagine all this because he has seen them in his own life. He said, his mother went through all these and he really feels sad about it and that is how he expressed these emotions through his paintings.
The exhibition is on till 31st of March at Art 9 Studio, Hannumanthnagar. Visit us.
Manisha Rai
