The Niranjana School is located in Bihar, in east India. It was founded by donations from Japanese students and regularly maintains a connection between Japan. In an initiative sponsored by the Wall Art Project, a Japanese non-profit aimed at bringing artists into school in India, they invited Yusuke Asai, a 33-year old artist who paints with basically anything he can get his hands on. This includes, but is not limited to, tape, pens, leaves, dust and mud.
Niranjana School, Bihar, India. Photo by Kenji Mimura courtesy Wall Art Project | click to enlarge
“Earth Painting; The Forest of Vows.” 7 kinds of soils, cow dung, water, straw. Photo by Junai Nakagawa
In order to raise awareness for the school, and to bring art into the classroom, which is literally a 17-hour train ride from New Delhi, Asai traveled to the school to create one of his signature paintings. Using 7 different types of local mud, cow dung, dirt and dust Asai created an immersive mural that covered the all walls of the classroom with a universe of people, animals and vegetation. Unfortunately the installation wasn’t permanent and was washed away after several months, but we do have these photos to document the art.
Here are some other works by Asai that were painted on walls:
“The indoor forest / The ground story” . Masking tape, pen. Photo: Ko Yamada
“Multiple Worlds”. Masking tape, pen. photo: Keizo Kioku
“Mud painting: large mountain” . Mud and water collected in Gunma. Photo: Masaru Yanagiba
May 12, 2014 at 1:52 pm
An amazing amount of complexity for such an ephemeral work. So happy you shared the documentation of it with us. We love the combination of ancient technique (using natural pigments) and modern styling. Fascinating work.
May 30, 2014 at 1:43 pm
The name of the state is Bihar, not Bahar.