Kerala artist recollects Tihar art camp with Nirbhaya convict

An artist from Kerala recollects the interest shown in the art of painting, by Vinay Sharma, one among the four Nirbhaya gang-rape-and-murder convict, during a camp conducted at the Tihar jail. Sharma, who was hanged on Friday morning, had reportedly expressed his wish to donate his paintings to the jail superintendent.

Murali Cheeroth, a Bengaluru-based Malayali artist, was among a team of artists who conducted a five-day art camp organised by the Lalit Kala Akademi at Tihar jail in August 2017.

Despite having no training in drawing, Vinay did about half a dozen paintings, which were not bad. However, a kind of negative energy reflected in his works, and the artists used to advise him to convey positive thoughts in his paintings, recollects Cheeroth, who is an internationally known artist who represented Kerala in the camp.

"On one or two occasions Vinay became sentimental. Once he mentioned that he accidentally became part of the crime and had shown regret. On another occasion, he said that he would come out of it. We used to advise him that he should try to convey positive energy in him through his paintings which will exist even after his life," said Cheeroth.

Vinay had drawn around half a dozen paintings during the camp. Almost all paintings had himself as the central character symbolically represented, which reflected the social isolation he faced. One painting was that of one 'Hanuman' being chased by many monkeys over a river. While he represented the Hanuman, the monkeys chasing him were holding flags that contained nasty words against him. Another one was that of many temples situated on the bank of a river, and many devotees praying from the other bank.

He used to say that painting provided him a sense of relief, and hence he would continue to do paintings even after the camp, said Cheeroth, indicating Sharma's interest in art would have continued after the camp.

The camp was held with the objective of providing art therapy for the prisoners as part of reforming them. Around 20 prisoners took part in the camp.