On 5 June, the World Environment Day, Post-Art Project, an arts collective founded by two young Delhi-based artists, Gargi Chandola and Yaman Navlakha, painted a mural on an SDMC Community Waste Collection Centre, opposite the Nehru Place Metro Station.
The theme for this year’s World Environment Day was “Beat Plastic Pollution”, and it concentrated especially on the growing plastic pollution in our oceans. According to the UN, each year, at least eight million tonnes of plastic end up in the oceans, the equivalent of a full garbage truck every minute.
The artwork depicts the adversity caused by plastic to our oceans and the living beings for whom it is not just home, but a source of food and life. The plastic that is not disposed in the correct manner makes its way through the drain pipes into rivers and finally into the ocean. The mural created with multiple colours and intricate design aims to bring to light to this serious environmental issue.
Gargi said, “We see the effects of plastic pollution every day in our towns and cities and even our rivers, but we hardly ever consider the effect it’s having on our oceans. Only recently because of photographic evidence are we realising the magnitude of the problem. This mural represents our concern and hopefully the audience will stop and consider it, even for a minute. This is a community event. And we chose to do it on the wall of a CWCC because it’s the first step to making a choice about what we consume and how we dispose of it”.
Yaman Navlakha is a photographer, documentary film-maker and musician. He said, “We approached the SDMC (Central Zone) with this idea to do it as a no-charge voluntary project, for WED’18 and they loved it. The entire project has been crowd funded. We received unbelievable support, and thanks to their generous contributions we have covered our material costs.”