KOCHI:
Close to the exit gate of the main venue, the Kochi-Muziris Biennale has a stall distinguishable for its unique character: a set of papers and boxes of crayons placed, inviting children to try a hand by working on a vast choice of images.
At the sprawling Aspinwall House in Fort Kochi, this is a Kerala Tourism pavilion that facilitates kids to colour on sketches of late prodigy Edmund Clint, who died a month short of turning seven in 1983 but not before doing 25,000 artworks.
Children visiting the stall can work on paper and take the piece of art home after signing their name on it. No less than 2,500 kids have so far done such paintings from the start of the 108-day biennale that began on December 12 last year, according to Ajay Kumar, who is in charge of the stall that provides around 2,500 works of Clint for colouring. “Of course, one is free to colour in whatever way they like,” he adds.
The Kerala Tourism stall at the biennale also gifts children colouring books with Clint’s works as prizes. “We suggest them to colour the sketches in the book,” says Ajay Kumar.
The joy in the activity apart, the children are keen to learn more about Clint (1976-83), who was a native of Kochi. For instance, Eswary A N, a class-1 student, is curious to know how a child of her age could do such a huge volume of artwork.
Dev D Shah, who visited the stall with his parents, is glad that the book lets him use whichever colour of his wish to paint. He thus chose to lend blue as the colour for the parrot on the paper. “That’s the colour of my shirt anyway,” he adds.
The stall had, till this January 31, entertained entries to the 2018 edition of an International Children’s Online Painting Competition. The participants could join the worldwide event by registering their names.
A committee will first shortlist ‘2,000 best pictures’ on March 31, two days after the conclusion of the fourth edition of the biennale. The winners will be declared on May 2, the organisers said, noting that the total number of participants had come close to 39,000. Of them, 6,781 children were from 117 countries other than India.
Kerala Tourism Director P Bala Kiran noted that the competition was one way to recall the contributions of Clint and spread his fame yet again across the world. “Much of what the boy drew was world-class,” he noted. “The biennale is a great opportunity to pay tribute to the little master.”
