The brief was to pick a place in Ahmedabad and create a narrative around it. I chose to visit Painter Street, where a lot of painters sit on the footpath with their banners behind them, and samples of their work. They, at one point (before Desktop Publishing), used to be in high demand – mainly painting banners and shop fronts.
I wanted to look at different aspects of the issue, focussing on the contrast, the pros and cons, in order to start a debate. Aesthetics, Functionality, Order, Chaos, Humanistic, Mechanical, Relevance, Necessity, Beauty, Clutter, Kitsch, Expression, Context were some of the aspects that came to mind.
The artwork establishes the painter’s profession, trying to give an identity to the same, challenges the advent of DTP and looks at how painting has always been an integral part of culture. A set of postcards was then created to promote the HandPaintedType project, since its already an established medium.
Identity.
Conflict.
Relevance.
Back of the postcards.
