On the 29th of February Purnaa Muthu, a 2nd year student at KREA University organized the sequel of her immensely successful and unique event, an art exchange. If you had chanced upon SH1 between 7:45 and 10 PM, you would have noticed the immaculate vibes with the ambient music and the air of effortless creativity that seemed to exude from that room. Purnaa came up with this unique concept last academic year in an attempt to create not just an artwork but an entire immersive experience as her final project for her Creative Expressions course. She had chanced upon the concept of a book exchange on Instagram and merging that with the goal of giving beginner artists or artists who are not ready to showcase their art to a larger audience, a platform to share their art without any pre-conceived notions or expectations, she came up with the brilliant idea of pairing up participants and having them exchange their art through her as the mediator, with the level of anonymity they would like to maintain, completely under the artist's control. What is interesting about this concept is the fact that the participants are pushed to make art for a stranger. Making art is usually an extremely personal or personalized process, that is, we usually make art that reflects either our own emotions and preferences or art that is catered and personalized to another person's specifications and interests. But in this situation, it is an intriguing mix of both. You have to make art that would appeal to your partner without knowing a thing about who they are and what they like. Here are some responses from participants to the question, “How was your experience making art for a stranger?”
“It was great actually because the fact that I didn't know this person meant that I could make what I wanted to and not necessarily according to the expectations from their side.” - Pali
“I didn't actually think of it as making art for a stranger, I thought of it as making art that I would have liked to receive if I was the stranger, what would make my day better, what would put a smile on my face…” - Gayatri
“It was quite fun because I could draw whatever I wanted to because usually if you know who it's going to be for then you are thinking about what they would like but in this case, I just made whatever I felt like making.” - Adrija
“I like making art that is more personalized, so thinking of something a little general was harder for me to do.” - Adwitya
“It was a first for me, and it was challenging because I had to make something they would like, except I don’t know who the ‘they’ in question is so I just wrote about an emotion that was universal and that a lot of people dealt with…” - Avanti Leher’s Creative Corner was also fortunate enough to collaborate with Purnaa and add to the experience in a small way. We set up a prompt wall to inspire spontaneous art. We encouraged people to capture a special moment with words or pictures that came to mind on the spot and had them draw or write on sticky notes and add them to our chart. The cute and creative ways in which participants were able to capture a moment in time was a process that was extremely inspiring to observe. Overall this was a brilliant initiative to encourage the people of KREA to come together and make and share art with each other without the added pressure or vulnerability that usually comes attached with the process of sharing your work. We hope to see many such encouraging and wholesome initiatives from Purnaa in the future! P.C. - Purnaa and Mahima
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