The human face of TB - trauma and isolation et all

Pain, fear and stigma - the numerous challenges of living with TB, which claims an average of 800 Indians everyday is being portrayed through artworks seeking to sensitise society and garner corporate support for the communicable disease.

One installation and 35 paintings capturing the emotions of the afflicted is part of an exhibition "Chehera: The Human Face of TB" has been put together in an exhibition here in support of the World TB day on March 24, jointly by the NGO Global Health Advocates (GHA) and Art for Change Foundation (ACF) in partnership with Confederation of Indian Industries (CII).

"We want people to see TB in a whole different perspective. While government and civil society members are involved in the fight against the disease an entire section of the society remains ignorant and tend to generally brush the issue under the carpet," says Christo Mathews, advocacy officer, GHA India.

The artists interacted with patients and doctors at a TB hospital and retreated into a 6-month long art camp where they culled their experiences which transformed into the resulting artworks for the exhibition.

"Walking through hospital wards talking to patients and sometimes sitting on their beds, we tried to make sense of the roots of the problem and understand how extensive it was and the specific challenges of stigma and fear faced by the suffering patient. One of the artists was even scared to step into the ward," says Stephan Prakash Eicher, executive director, AFC.

Eicher says art allows people to see issues in a way they have never done before and the reach of the disease along with the humanness of the tragedy struck each of the 22 participating artist differently, which is seen in their respective works.

An old man lying in a bed abandoned by his family, a woman turned out of her home and planning her divorce after getting better, a boy asking them to photograph the man in the next bed rather then himself as he feared being recognised locally were some of the experiences of the artists.

"I talked to a man whose children were about the same age as my children. After the conversation he took off his mask and he was a completely different man. My painting is a reflection of how masks is a banner that separates on human being from another," says Eicher.