Flyover pillars come alive with stories

Those passing by the Wheeler Road flyover in Cox Town are beginning to experience the beauty of murals on its six pillars

How would it feel like if you were to stop your vehicle at a roadside mural and bring it to life by scanning the stone depictions?

Those passing by the Wheeler Road flyover in Cox Town, Sarvagnanagar, are beginning to experience the beauty of the art murals on its six pillars, which will soon be made into an immersive art experience with Augmented Reality (AR) technology.

The global 3D-storytelling project is in partnership between Bengaluru-based organisations Jaaga and BeFantastic with US-based storyteller Eames Demetrios.

Painted on both sides, the pillars depict various flyover stories by Demetrios. The concept, dubbed Kcymaerxthaere (disputed likeness), is experimented for the first time in Bengaluru’s open places.

“The depictions include a parallel universe with different kinds of creatures and languages. About 15 artists have worked on the pillars under the guidance of Bakula Nayak, Amitabh Kumar and Hasan,” said Karthika Sakthivel, community engagement lead at Jaaga.

Rising tower

An artists who worked on the project Navin Kumar Kushwah said his group has presented three stories.

“One about a tower that rises from the sea, another about people who live underwater and speak through shapes, and another about a tiger,” he said.

Planning for the project began in June with artwork completed in two of the six pillars. A granite inscription with Demetrios’ original story will be installed at the completion of the project. Once complete, passersby can scan the murals and watch them come alive, thanks to AR technology.

Local community

Besides display of art murals, the project also aims to engage local community in their storytelling process.

“Three performing arts groups engage the community and render stories theatrically. One group is using playback theatre to hold conversations on ideas like ‘who is the public’, ‘whose space is this’, and ‘creativity and the commons’,” said Kamya Ramachandran, founder director, BeFantastic.

“This is not the traditional form of playback. It is an adaptive version to engage the kind of audience available here,” said Swathi, an artist from Citylamps.

On the other hand, the Still Space Theatre group rehearsed for their collaborative performance with Keremane Yakshagana group last week. “We can call this experimental theatre. It is a concept of evoking responses with abstract performances”, said Akshay Gandhi a member of the group.

Organisers said more performances will be organised every month to raise funds for the maintenance of the murals and inscriptions.

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