Shunned by family, showcasing in Vienna

CHENNAI: Udayakumar, a Kasimedu resident, had always been interested in art. He was no connoisseur, but it was something that kept him going. A few years ago, he was diagnosed with leprosy. He had to stop drawing, was shunned by his family and most of his trusted friends. “I was ready to commit suicide,” he says. But fate intervened and he was admitted at the Central Leprosy Teaching and Research, Institute, Chengalpattu. “I vowed to never go back home from there,” Uday recalls. He admitted himself at an old age home at the leprosy colony in the same area and eventually, seven years ago, he discovered the Bindu Arts School at Bharathpuram. Founded by Austrian multimedia artist and curator Werner Dornik and social activist Padma Venkataraman, the school was formed in 2005 to self-employ people affected with leprosy. Today, Uday, along with another student Y Uma, are main coordinators of the school and take care of daily affairs. For the second time, students of the school, from an age group of 20-85, will soon set up an exhibition of paintings. Some of the paintings from the collection will be on display at hotel Courtyard by Marriott, Anna Salai, till March 19. There will be an auction of the paintings on February 28. “Each time a student sells a painting, one third of the sale amount is equally split among all students, another third is saved as the corpus fund and the final third is earmarked for the opening of many other similar schools across the country,” informed Padma. The team at Bindu is currently working on stabilising their newly-opened second school at Sarnath, Varanasi.“The idea here is to not sell off the paintings for less money because they are done by people with leprosy,” says Werner. Paintings of the students have been exhibited at various important galleries in not only India, but across the world. “Once people here know the venues that we have showcased our collection in, they are happy with the branding and are willing to pay more,” he adds. As most students had not held even a pencil before they joined the school, a lot of moulding had to go into them artists. “We have workshops and take them to museums and art exhibits. Some of the students also went to Vienna to see their paintings displayed at a gallery there,” says Werner. “But we don’t push the students. No help is given until they ask for it.”