Art From Behind Bars: Mumbai’s Convicts Find A Creative Outlet

When we first heard of Art From Behind Bars, the first thing that popped into our minds was the scene in The Shawshank Redemption. Andy Dufresne, Red and the other inmates are sitting together, eating lunch. Dufresne is talking to them about music; the music that’s “in here,” Dufresne says pointing to his head, “and in here,” pointing to his heart. He turns to art – in this case, music – as “something inside...that they can’t touch” – something that cannot be taken from him. To him, music symbolised hope – real, human hope.

“We’re all the same,” Kavita Shivdasani, founder of Art From Behind Bars (AFBB), tells Homegrown. “There was never any reason for us to be scared.”

For 10 years now, artwork by convicts in jails, in and around Mumbai, have been encouraged and displayed in galleries around the city, in a project called Art From Behind Bars. Shivdasani spoke to Homegrown about her project and the unparalleled experiences she has had working with these artists.

Shivdasani, a teacher, who used to hold ‘Know Your Environment’ creative classes for students from ages 9 to 15 from schools in and around her area, like the Cathedral and John Connon School and JB Petit, first came up with the idea of AFBB, in 2006, when her students were writing a story about Bombay during the British Raj. Arthur Road happened to be in the plot of the story, and Shivdasani and her students decided to go to and get a feel of the setting of their story. At the jail, she happened to meet the senior jailer at the time, and told him about her classes. He showed her the painting of one of the inmates – a beautiful charcoal painting. When she asked the artist – who was convicted in Nasik Jail and released in 2013 – about why he chose charcoal – an incredibly difficult form to master – he replied saying that he got it very easily in his village, and so was drawn to it. Shivdasani was impressed. “And that was it,” she says, and thus, AFBB was born.

Apart from Arthur Road Jail, Shivdasani brought her project to places like Yerwada and Byculla as well, where she not only met interested artists, but was also introduced to those in other jails around the country. At the Byculla jail, she was informed of a talented female artist in Nagpur jail, and soon, the paintings these inmates made began building up – so much so that AFBB decided to host their first art gallery exhibition. The theme they chose for this was ‘Black and White’, centering their paintings around those done with charcoal, inspired by the first painting by the Arthur Road jail inmate she was introduced to. The students of her ‘Know Your Environment’ class took this up as their community service project, and began fundraising for the exhibition, but by the end of it, they only had enough to afford charcoal and paper for the inmates. Nevertheless, they made the most of what they could. “At the last minute, the gallery with whom we were supposed to hold our exhibition decided they didn’t want to be associated with this project – with art by ‘killers’ and ‘murderers,’” Shivdasani says. Fortunately, Bajaj Art Gallery took this project in, and the exhibition was a massive success. They didn’t stop there – they’ve had five exhibitions so far. All the money earned through the exhibition is sent to the inmates’ bank accounts, for them to access after they are released.

AFBB has conducted several sessions in the Yerwada, Arthur Road, Byculla, Nagpur and Nasik jails, with professional artists and colour therapists conducting them. AFBB introduced their concept of ‘colour therapy’ soon after their first few sessions – “The goal was to get the inmates to enjoy themselves with bright colours,” Shivdasani tells us. They began by using crayons and acrylic paints on paper, before moving into different materials and larger canvases. “They initially found it very difficult to let go of home – their paintings were centred around hills and mountains,” she explains. “They soon asked for black paint, but we were very clear – no blacks, no browns. Only bright colours. We didn’t give any of them more than one canvas – if you made a mistake, you had to use your creativity and figure it out yourself.” As they conducted session after session across these jails, they ended up with a large exhibition-worthy collection; enough to keep their galleries going for a while. “I loved working with the Arthur Road artists. We gather the best sales from there as well!”

When asked about her organisation, Dagar, which was started in the end of 2014, of which AFBB is a part of, Shivdasani replied, “We started Dagar simply because we needed somewhere to keep the money that people are donating.” She swears by her colleagues, and says that, without her curators and the artists coming forward to host workshops, AFBB wouldn’t be able to run.

“In our case, we’re quite a nuisance to the jail,” Shivdasani says. Taking in big boxes of paint and large canvases that have to go through intensive checking before entering the jail has been exhausting, but one look at the paintings that come out of these workshops assures us that the trouble is more than worth it.

Art, to Shivdasani, is something that breaks the inmates’ constant cycle of routine. It diverts their attention away from the ambiguity of the outcome of their lives and the pain of being away from their families, and focusses on the positive. She recalls one particular session she held at the Byculla jail in 2010. “Our time slot was 10 to 5. The 10 artists we were working with were up from 6 am for the class!” Apart from the inmates, the students of her class are as excited about each exhibition and each workshop. The theme for their 2013 exhibition was surrealism, and her students, inspired by the surrealist art the inmates had been creating, put together a beautiful coffee table book with stories about these paintings.

Shivdasani is clear that one aspect she does not want to get into with her project, is the crime one. “If someone is asking you for a second chance, you give it to him. Even if the phase is temporary, it occupies the inmates; it alleviates their pain, and makes them feel good.” She accepts that she is, too, only human, and her demeanour towards the inmates may have the slightest possibility of changing if she has knowledge of their backgrounds and their reasons for imprisonment. She has had several people ask her if she ever felt afraid during her work, but she vehemently disagrees. “I’m more scared of the committee members in my building society!” she jokes. “There’s nothing for us to be scared of. Focus on the art, is the only goal we have in mind.”

If you wish to learn more about Art From Behind Bars, visit their Twitter page.