India is currently experiencing a deadly second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Major hospitals in the worst-hit regions are filled to capacity and overwhelmed with patients amid reports that people are dying in hospital parking lots due to lack of oxygen. In the middle of all this, three artists from Hyderabad are using a non-conventional method to stem the spread of the dangerous virus – wall art. 

Hyderabad-based startup founder Vinay Cheguri and two of his friends Uppara Sreedhar and Ram, who are fine art graduates, are contributing to the existing awareness campaigns on dealing with the pandemic by using wall art as a medium to express and spread the urgency of wearing masks to stay safe. 

Their awareness campaign involves creating a series of eight greyscale portraits of people, all different looking, with a blue surgical mask on their faces. The huge wall arts have been painted on the walls adjacent to the toll plaza on the way to the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad.

“Our idea was to ‘fight the coronavirus together.’ and also the fact that we can only overcome this unfortunate situation if everyone plays their part to stay safe. Starting from you, me, the vegetable vendor, a little girl to a policeman, this is something which connects all of us and thus we need to join hands to stay safe and hence, mask up,” Vinay told India’s News18.

Vinay who has an engineering background said he was always interested in arts back in college and had even started a startup with friends back then but which did not move far, before he met Uppara Sreedhar and Ram in 2016 when the trio started working together on artistic projects around the state and subsequently formed their wall art city beautification startup, DCOPS.

In the wake of the ravaging second wave, the Shamshabad municipality commissioned the artists to create the COVID-19 safety awareness art at the toll plaza which they finished in three weeks, and Vinay says they are in talks with the authorities to do more such awareness projects.

“To find a way to grab everyone’s attention who is going in and out of the state was important but what was also to be ensured was that drivers do not get distracted, so the toll plaza helps. They will be stopping for a few seconds and the art will create an impact as well. Also, the faces needed to put across a message of solidarity amid all the duress,” Vinay explained on their choice of location and art form.

As India and the rest of the world continue to battle with the coronavirus, the message inscribed by these Hyderabad artists is vital for our collective survival; “In the fight with Covid, as evil is around us, there is only one man for the job. It’s YOU.”

Just as art has been proven to be an effective means of therapy and a universal communicator, wall art, street art, graffiti and other forms of quarantine-inspired art help us navigate these dire times. If you don't have the opportunity to experience this amazing feeling of looking at art on your city wall, why not buy one for your house? Aworanka has this calming water landscape artwork and this painting that fills you with the aura of spring.