Niruban Satchithanandakumar (23) is an accountant by profession. His day is spent shuffling through excel sheets, adding up numbers and studying graphs; but there’s something about Niruban that sets him apart from your typical office drone. Getting home after work the young accountant returns to a house with large skateboard art murals painted across its walls.
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| Niruban Satchithanandakumar . Pix by M. A. Pushpa Kumara |
An accountant by day and a graffiti artist by night- is how Niruban described himself when he presented his work at Pecha Kucha volume II. He started by painting a little picture on his bedroom wall. That developed into a full blown mural, he then progressed over to the rooftop floor and walls.
Fortunately, for the artist in Niruban, his parents were fine with their eldest son’s obsession being manifested on their home walls. “One day she came in and saw the whole wall done”, shares Niruban about how his mother discovered his first mural. “She didn’t say anything- it was already done and it’s not like any visitors would have seen it anyway. Though”, he pauses and beams “I once asked if I could paint the front of the wall of the house and they were like – No”.
While Niruban is certainly immensely talented, his artistic ability was contained up until recently. A graphic designer as well, he only started exploring his talent during his A/L years; having schooled at Wesley College. “When A/Ls finished, I wanted to get into art. I applied to the LASALLE College of Art in Singapore. I got my first year exempted too but I didn’t get the scholarship,” he says. “So I thought now I should be studying something so I might as well be working on something that can help me do art professionally. So I took up CIMA but then you just get sucked in it. So that’s where I am”. He hasn’t given up on pursing his passion though. Like many great artists, Niruban isn’t knocked down easily.
He’s been reading up and watching online tutorials over the years, developing his talent and developing into a self-taught artist. Drawing from other inspiring art work, Niruban says his influences are Shepard Fairey- who is best known for his OBEY GIANT work and the stylized stencil portrait of Obama in his ‘HOPE’ poster campaign, and Marko Djurdjevic, a Marvel Comic artist. Music influences his art too, specific genres being House, techno and mainstream pop.
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| Peeping in to the roof top is the blue Cyclopes that was formerly a grinning joker. Washed by the rain the joker was reduced to running paint and Niruban decided to salvage the smeared wall by painting the Cyclopes over it. He’s christened it ‘Bob’, deriving inspiration from Mike Wazowski from Monsters Inc. |
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So how was Niruban discovered? It all started with an open invite by Saskia Fernando to anyone interested in street art. “They were having a street art event and I thought I’d go check it out. But I went there and found they were doing it on a canvas, so then I thought ‘what the heck let’s go and do it. And then Saskia saw it and liked what I’d done”, explains Niruban. Saskia said they had a project that was right up his alley- limited edition poster prints. Snowballing from there, Niruban has been receiving work since. Still quite unassuming, he insists that he is far from being ‘pro’ but is striving in that direction.
The accountant cum artist, or rather artist cum account, is guarded about his upcoming projects but he did disclose that he’s been eyeing a few walls around Colombo- one down Marine Drive and another in Ward Place to be specific. To Niruban they are perfect canvases for some skateboard graffiti. |
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