Artists cry foul as vandals damage pillars of art

KOZHIKODE: Artist 'Linesh Art' is a sad man today. Reason: anti-socials vandalised the city's walls and pillars he and his friends cleaned and transformed into beautiful pictures - known as Chithrathoonukal.

They painted them under the initiative of Artists of Kozhikode, a young artists' collective, as part of 'Compassionate Kozhikode'. 

In an FB post on Wednesday, the young man expressed his angst posting his damaged painting, a beachside scene of Thilakan and Dulquar Salman in 'Ustad Hotel'. 

"Again and again we have been proving that we will not change," it says. 
"I have been with the project under Compassionate Kozhikode for the last two years. Though I have painted many scenes, this was the one I did with my whole heart."

He says most of the spaces cleaned under the project were the filthiest corners of the city. "I don't understand why people are not at all concerned about the selfless work of many behind it," he wonders.

However former district collector Prasanth Nair, the inspiration behind the project, reacted to his post saying "if the culprits would have received the right punishment at the right time, it will not have repeated". 

"It was our collective failure to ensure deserving punishment to those who made the walls shabby again", he said, adding he would do his level best to ensure justice to the artists.  The young artists' community has decided to bring the attention of collector U.V. Jose to this.