After Bala Govind Kumar tested positive for COVID-19 about April 26 at Chennai, he spent 2 weeks in isolation in his rented flat at Kilpauk, feeling lonely and listless. During nowadays, he used his own i-pad to build a visual journal of his feelings through artwork.
The set of six paintings,” ‘Quarantine Days’, can be the investigation of the idea of self. “All I could see was myself. Why not create self-portraits, I thought,” says Bala, whose personality has been heavily motivated by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. He captured a video of himself participated in a number of daily errands and created a montage of their stills because of his very first job titled Rooted. It shows variants of himself staring outside the window and also at the bottom, ingestion, and considering his own cell phone.
For your 25-year-old self-taught architect and artist hailing from Tirunelveli and act as an art director in Chennai, that is really a healing procedure. “Art is my natural way of self-expression. And it made my days of isolation easier to bear.”
Bala decided to work as it failed to require him to head outside to secure art equipment. “In another time, I would have preferred acrylic or oil paint. But now I realise digital art gives you a lot of artistic freedom; it is easy to pursue even in extraordinary circumstances such as this.”
The works are a fulfilling host to Bala’s feelings along with his bodily reality. He clarifies each phase of the disorder along with also his mental condition — breathing difficulty, lack of smell and taste and fatigue. “I could not work every day. On the days I felt better, I would create two works,” he states.
Following six days inside, he moved around the patio, spending some time together with plants that hastens his head and he caught this, at a few of those works. Bala explains how art wasn’t only decorative but also gave him a peek in to the philosophical. “We are bound by time. Whatever we may think we are, we cannot run from this.”
The last painting from this collection, titled The Immunology Story, can be just a tribute to most of those whose struggles using COVID-19 went . “Their struggle was as real as mine,” he or she adds.
Bala intends showing his works once the COVID-19 scenario develops.
Presently in Tirunelveli, he’s taking care of some succession, ‘Misplaced Goat’, and it is a search to reevaluate his team through its rich heritage of folk art.
Bala Govind’s works are on the market @kalaa_shala on Insta-gram.