Aravani Art Project
Aravani Art Project is an art collective from Bangalore founded by Poornima Sukumar in 2016. The collective uses art to shape safe spaces for the transgender community, giving them a medium to excerise their own agency and connect with communities across India. The collective works on multidisciplinary art projects, of which the public art interventions mark the streets across India with colors of life and diversity.
Their murals are now the vibrant remnants of conversations between cultures that strengthen community bonds and build friendships across differences. Over the years, 7 trans women have given up sex work to join the collective as full time participants who execute public art projects across the country and more are getting a sustainable life and representation through of this practice.
Me/ We, Facebook
Mumbai 2020
This mural was painted across 2 weeks which included women from Sneha Foundation, students from a local school in Dharavi and the residents of Dharavi at large after several open workshops. The most salient element depicted in this
artwork is kindness and a sense of community through the smiling figures, lazing dogs and baloon sellers.
Kannagi Art District
Chennai 2020
Lakshmi Mills
COimbatore, 2019
Artists from Aravani Art Project covered over a 225 ft long wall in Coimbatore’s landmark Lakshmi Mills, which was transforming a section of the mill into a shopping complex. They showcase the processes behind the textile production with their artwork. History of weaving by framing the transition from handloom to spilling mills. They also gave a tribute to the workforce, who have been the torchbearers of this tradition, beginning the narrative from the cotton fields. The pastel colour palette accompanies the industrial character of the Mill, enhancing its historical charm.
Lodhi Art District
new Delhi, 2019
Aravani Art Project paints an emblematic ode to trans-people who have contributed towards the upliftment of their community. With a vivid usage of colors, the collective painted portraits of diverse people to showcase a symbolic unity relating back to their process, which is fundamentally based on inclusivity. In an effort to consistently break stigma against the trans community by engaging with diverse audiences, this mural was painted in front of the ‘N.P.CO-ED Senior Secondary School’ in Lodhi Colony.
District Library
kovai, 2018
Aravani Art Project, invited by St+art India Foundation, painted the District Library Office which is their largest work so far. This project aimed to create a new landmark in the city by developing an artwork that celebrated local people, motifs and textile traditions from Tamil Nadu. In a celebration of diversity and the everyday individual who passes by, the artists painted a mural with faces and textile patterns that they found in the market. While interacting with the people they met, they observed how the everyday dweller would live each day to seize it, despite of being caught in hustle within their individual lives.
St+art Kolkata
Kolkata, 2018
Aravani Art Project painted a mural in Sonagachi, the biggest red light district in Asia. They have been working with a group of transgenders to realise a vibrant piece that blends a portrait with local colourful patterns.
The portrait acts as a generic representation of all the transgenders and the sex workers to put forward a message of empowerment. They have the right to be respected despite their work. We are not what we do but who we are.
In a participative approach they gave light to the marginalised communities while also regenerating the building of the Durbar Committee, which is a clinic providing healthcare to the women in the area.
Sassoon Dock Art Project
mumbai, 2017
Poornima & Sadhna Prasad, take their inspiration for this artwork from the drapes worn by the Koli and Banjara women for their piece at Sassoon Dock Art Project. Using their novel style from Aravani Art Project, the duo create a mural with similar sensibilities.
Naavu Idhevi
bangalore, 2016
