From “Veruddy” to “Virumpi”
A creative transformative process with the Children.
“Veruddy” “The scarecrow” is the art of the ordinary people. “Veruddy” means “those who frighten”, this is also called as “Veruli” and “Konangi”.
The purpose of creating “Veruddy” is to scare the birds in the paddy fields and vegetable gardens. It’s also structured at building construction sites in order to protect from “Kannooru” the evil eye.
Creativity is not an asset of few specialist personalities. It’s a hidden, untapped wealth of all human beings. The creations of “Veruddy”, is a perfect example of creativity and the artistic ability of the ordinary people.
The creative work of Children which are based on the concept “Art of making Veruddy” will simply expose this to the people. It has the freedom to allow the hands and minds of children to go beyond the horizons of conventional creative spaces.
Conventionally the creation of “Veruddy” is focused to create a scare, but the creative process with the children transformed this as “Virumpi” meaning Loveable.
Making of “Virumpi” is a creative process with unending freedom of expressing inner feelings, humor, love and beauty, with discarded waste materials from the environment.
The ultimate objective of the creative exercise is to utilize only environmentally friendly materials to make the children aware of and indulge them into the activism of making the world free from environmental hazards.
The above creative activity was conceptualized by S. Jeyasankar and creatively facilitated by S.Nirmalavasan with the assistance of Third Eye Local Knowledge and Skill Activists.
S.Jeyasankar
