Be it a garbage bin, water tank, old scooter, tabletop, trunk, coffee mug or a wall — young and creative product designer Nishat Rehman is always on a lookout for a unique canvas for her interpretation of Indian culture. She loves to pick up mundane things and give them a fresh lease of life by painting them in myriad shades of turquoise, orange or blue.
Experimenting with mixed media, Nishat calls herself an avid traveller and a photographer who carries her experiences with her. With a nomadic lifestyle came the designer’s need to express her panoramic view and interpretation of Indian culture. “My passion for photography takes me places and since I am also a painter, I wanted to document my travel experiences.
Hence, the idea of using my old scooter (which travels with me everywhere) popped up. There couldn’t be a better place to put together the colourful and engaging visuals that I had registered while travelling to different parts of India. India is a diverse country and my Scooty tries to bring out that facet. You can see puppets from Rajasthan, Kolkata’s Howrah Bridge, Sikkim’s prayer flags, the quintessential auto from Delhi, the locals from Mumbai, Char Minar from Hyderabad, shikaras from Kashmir, hot air balloons from Himachal Pradesh etc. painted on the vehicle,” she shares.
As backpacks, trunks and suitcases are also travelling essentials, Nishat thought of painting them too. “Since photographs alone couldn’t have done justice and depicted my journey, I thought of documenting those visuals on accompanying travel elements like a backpack and a trunk,” she adds.
Apart from her travel series, Nishat transformed one of the most mundane of modern-day amenities at Delhi’s Lodhi Gardens — the dustbin. “Since people were tired of seeing the same old green dustbins with garbage spilt all around them in public spaces, we thought of giving them a fresh take by using them as canvases for public art.
The work was immensely gratifying as an artist because usually your artwork is confined within the bounds of museums or galleries. Seldom do you get an opportunity to make your art public, so that even a regular jogger at a park could come and praise your artwork,” says Nishat, a postgraduate in fine arts, from the College of Art, University of Delhi.
Nishat, who also paints wall murals all over India, had previously volunteered to help cancer patients by painting the walls of their homes, and ended up having some wonderful, creative moments with patients, families and volunteers. “Nothing is more satisfying than creating a visually happy difference by adding colours to the life of a common man,” she concludes.
