Himanshu Kansal waves at us, a big smile in place, from across the screen during our virtual interview. We are waiting for his interpreter to join us; a critical link to communicating with the fine art and multimedia designer based in Sheopur, Madhya Pradesh.

Kansal’s Instagram illustrations on his handle @isignart have caught our attention for creating a visual library of hand gestures based on the Indian Sign Language (ISL) to denote terms and expressions associated with the queer community. “My passion is to draw, and much of it has to do with what I observe among the deaf community and from the Indian Sign Language,” reads his bio.