Feb 10: Vikram Bawa, acclaimed visual artist and photographer, has rendered his creative vision for a striking poster for the 14th edition of the Mahindra Blues Festival. The poster has perfectly encapsulated the evolution and journey of blues to the heart of Mumbai.
The artist captures the essence of blues in its most elemental form with his latest creation. The central metaphor – a road transforming into a guitar – speaks deeply about blues essence, a genre born out of struggle, love, and resilience. The road is a metaphor for the stories of migration and hope from the dusty roads of Mississippi to a new expression in the maximum city, where the genre found a home.
The city has absorbed, evolved, and held space for everything new while honouring its glorious past. Blues also carried a new vigour when it came to Mumbai, with the Mahindra Blues Festival, creating a stage that saw legends and emerging voices shape the future of blues. With the poster, Vikram has crafted an artistic statement that reflects how rhythm, movement, and a lovely spirit comes together in blues.
Talking about the idea behind creating the poster, Vikram Bawa said, “Being on the road has always been music to my restless traveller’s soul. Set against Mumbai, a city where my journeys begin and end, this image reflects music shaped by rhythm, movement, and the spirit of the blues.”
Vikram’s distinguished and internationally revered career always reflected a nuanced emotional depth. His visual grammar thrives on lived experiences rather than mere aesthetics. As Mahindra Blues Festival braces for its latest edition, his artwork perfectly exemplifies his work, inviting the audience to experience the raw, honest spectacle – like every great blues song.