An artful page-turner

The workshop in Delhi

Having illustrated children's books before, Shivangi Singh, Lokesh Khodke and Shefalee Jain have been interested in thinking about the representation of children in terms of gender, class and caste. This led the Delhi-based trio of the independent publishing platform BlueJackal to ponder on the realities kids from different backgrounds face on a day to day basis, and they decided to ideate on it with other artists.

Artwork by Reshma Khatoon in Urdu

From January 2019 to November 2019, they organised three workshops on the thematic of ‘childhood as a site' with 24 artists in collaboration with ArtBuzz Studios where they focused on creatively and critically looking at rhymes and proverbs across regions and languages that have shaped childhood. The outcome of these workshops will materialise as a publication titled OCTA 2020: Two One Za Two, Two-Two Za, which they are now raising funds for.

The book-jacket is a box comprising two books in different sizes along with five accordion books

The book comprises visually enriched rhymes and narratives in languages such as Urdu, Mizo, Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil, Haryanvi, Konkani, Odia, Marathi, Punjabi, Marwari, Himachali, Bangla, Hindi and English. "The title corresponds to learning math tables as kids. We have looked at how language is sometimes oppressive or playful," Singh shares.

Jain adds that it was a conscious decision to invite a variety of practitioners to capture diverse experiences. "An illustrator from Haryana brought in some Haryanvi proverbs that shed light on the stereotypes about the girl child in a humorous way, while another artist has illustrated couplets he came across in public toilets as a kid using images from art history," she explains.

Although the project has been funded partially by Kolkata gallery Experimenter, the platform is trying to crowd-fund the remaining R1,50,000 that is needed to publish the book. They hope to reach their target by April this year.

Log on to: ketto.org/fundraiser/bluejackal-publication-project-octa-2020-two-one-za-two-two-two-za (to contribute)