Chennai lockdown: City artist Gowtham is helping cops in their fight against coronavirus – Times of India

The onlookers near the Villivakkam market in Chennai had quite a sight to behold on Thursday. As the ration shop at the market opened its shutters to people, a police officer entered the scene with a virus shaped helmet, along with an armour and mace. “Do you want to stay clear of the coronavirus? Then please, stay a metre away,” he said, tirelessly repeating the message to the crowd lining to get their groceries.
The stunning creative is the brainchild of city-based artist B Gowtham, who has been educating people on the streets about the effects of coronavirus, in collaboration with the Chennai police. While the idea first began with the immensely popular ‘corona helmet’, which the police used to warn drivers who flouted rules during the lockdown a week ago, it gradually progressed to a ‘corona warrior’ with armour. The spike in the number of positive cases in the state was reason enough for elevation in his creations, Gowtham said.
If the helmet was to request people to stay off the streets, the armour was a lesson in social distancing. Be a warrior and stay at home is the message Gowtham wanted to drive home. “The mace, which is a metre long, is to depict the minimum distance that people must maintain during this crisis. The creative is made entirely out of scrap material found around police stations in the city, including old newspapers, broken plywood and plastic boxes,” explained Gowtham, who is also the mind behind Walk For Plastic, a popular plastic clearing drive in the country.
The project was to essentially bring concepts of art and security on the same platter. “On the first day of lockdown, I wanted to spend time by myself. But the second day, I ended up at the police station. I suggested that we collaborate and told them about my ideas to spread awareness,” he recalled, adding that the intention was to also humanise the police force.
“In films and reality, the policemen have always had a negative imposition. Their life is quite challenging. Of course, there are instances of violence and police brutality. But there are so many officers who want to go the extra mile to get to people, he said. And Chennai police officer Rajesh Babu was one such example. “This was possible only because of Rajesh Babu sir. He wanted to experiment with ideas and wanted to go about this in an intellectual way. He is also a big believer of non-violence,” the artist added.
The Latin connection
The image of the helmet seemed to have struck a chord with many, even going on to attract international acclaim. The helmet’s origin, however, is a tale of happy coincidence. “Incidentally, the word Corona means crown in Latin. When I began brainstorming about how to visualise corona, the image of a crown stuck with me. And thus, emerged the idea of a helmet. As for the shield, I took bats as the inspiration. While it is not proven yet, some do associate bats or pangolins to the origins of the virus,” noted Gowtham.
The entire idea of this creative is to urge people from standing a metre away from each other. If you do not maintain the distance, the shield will be pulled out to tell you why social distancing matters.
-Rajesh Babu, police officer

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