A message through visual means

Inspired thinking

A Hundred Million Crucifixions — Art Against War’, a 24ft x 7ft acrylic on canvas painting is being presented by John Devaraj at Venkatappa Art Gallery, Kasturba Road. The exhibition will be on till
February 5.

In the exhibition, Devaraj pits his art against war and inhumane practices across the spectrum, such as child labour. He says, openly, that his exhibition is his “visual statement to put an end to war, to prohibit armies of the world, to extinct militaries, to put an end to the greed of man, to make love, peace and joy as the basis of living and to behold a new and wondrous world where everyone can be a child.”

He speaks of the hundred million child labourers, and his journey through the interiors of Karnataka that sensitised him to their sufferings.

He says that war “is not a particular time for exchange of gunfire or physical battles, but the value, priority and the practice of human hatred, greed, want possession, killing and destruction.