Art to give hope in the times of lockdown

The global lockdown has brought to fore interesting

stories

of survival, humanity and compassion. Closer home in Goa, there are stories of laypeople unconditionally assisting people and animals. Prague-based artist

Hesham Malik

, who spent his childhood in Goa, was fascinated by these stories, and will be hosting an online

art

exhibition titled ‘Goa-Covid’ with 19 artworks. “Generally exhibitions are about the art or the gallery, but we are bringing art to homes, to enable humans to relate to each other through the medium of art,” says Hesham who is collaborating with the Carpe Diem art gallery in Goa.

While gathering stories, he realised that everyone had a particular tone to their lockdown accounts. “It’s difficult to imagine their pain and struggle, but to see people united, deserves a big ‘thank you’; that’s what we are doing with this virtual art documentary. We are thanking the community, workers, nurses, doctors, journalists, parents for joining hands and fighting together during this uncertainty,” he says.

Hesham says he wanted to document those stories, more than focus on the intricacies of the art. Collecting the stories over a week, he noticed that each had a strong calling to help, “We have stories from people across sectors that range from happy to sad to upsetting accounts. I took one aspect of each story and created an artwork out of it using mixed media on canvas. Thus the art is only supporting the lives of these people I spoke to,” he says.

The exhibition aims at helping viewers deal with their issues and bring in hope during the lockdown. “We are all going through the same thing and our motive was to have people know that they are not alone in this,” he says. Hesham plans of doing a similar series in cities like New York,

London

, Berlin, Prague, “I am proud and happy I could start with the first show being in Goa, having strong roots here,” he shares.



The exhibition will be online from April 18.