Inked finger pulls crowd on Akota-Dandia Bazaar Road

Vadodara: A 40-feet-long finger will grab your eyeballs as you drive down the Akota-Dandia Bazaar Road! Worried? Don’t be. For, this innovative 3-D painting of a finger marked with indelible ink has been successfully greeting people, especially art-lovers from the city. And the district administration is happy that it had hit the idea to commission such a unique attention-grabbing objet d’art.
“Sanskari Nagari is also an art hub with art aficionados understanding the creative language. We wanted to create awareness about the importance of voting ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. Therefore, we decided to make the 3D painting so as to reach out to maximum citizens and appeal all to exercise their right to franchise. District collector Shalini Agrawal had commissioned the artwork,” said Sachin Kaluskar, who has curated the painting.

The humongous painting by artist Keval Kahar is India’s first 3D artwork and especially on voter awareness issue, said Kaluskar talking to TOI. “A message below the painting says ‘no voter to be left behind’. Two more paintings on voting awareness will be made on Sayajibaug Road and Kothi Crossroads in the coming days,” he added.

Another group of artists has come up with a unique idea to increase voting percentage in the city.

Artist Hitesh Rana has organized an exhibition that will be inaugurated on Friday evening at Sarjan Art Gallery. “We have made 543 chairs representing the number of seats in our Parliament. And there are sculptures of people representing different cultures in our country,” Rana explained, adding that around 40 sculptures of people are holding the chairs on their shoulders. “It conveys that it is the people of this country that are upholding the democracy. The exhibition hall’s ambience also creates an atmosphere of elections,” said Rana who had conceptualized the exhibition.

The art gallery will also have a sound installation narrating India’s history from the times of Mahabharata to the present day. Ekdant Rangoli Kalakar Group used the medium of rangolis to spread voter awareness in an exhibition recently, where 15 huge colourful spreads on the theme of voting in the city attracted people.