THE WORLD’S LARGEST CANVAS PAINTING BY SACHA JAFRI TO RAISE MONEY FOR CHILDREN’S CHARITIES

Tue 29 September 2020:

A British artist named Sacha Jafri has taken over the ballroom of Dubai’s Atlantis, The Palm to create the world’s largest painting and in turn, making a record-breaking piece of art ever created on canvas. The artist has been working on the painting for over five months, ever since the novel coronavirus lockdown was implemented.

His goal is to set a new Guinness World Record for the largest art canvas and raise $30 million to fund health and education initiatives for children in impoverished parts of the world.

The 44-year-old contemporary artist says he hopes to double that amount when parts of his “Journey of Humanity” work go up for auction in February 2021.

The art piece is made on 1,980 square meters canvas, roughly the size of four basketball courts and once it’s done, Jafri plans to cut it into 60 smaller pieces. The centre of Jafri’s piece features work submitted by children from around the world. Jafri printed the children’s contributions on paper and incorporated into the painting.

For seven months and at a pace of 18-20 hours a day, Jafri has been working on his latest creation with almost 300 layers of paint, using 1,400 gallons (more than 5,000 liters) and about 1,000 brushes.

The artist said coronavirus has focused his efforts towards connecting people to counter its impact on children.

Children from 140 countries submitted paintings online to be included in Jafri’s creation with its eight “portals.”

“I paste those into the circular portals … I want to take us to a better world through the hearts, minds, and souls of our children,” said Jafri.

The children’s paintings depicted their own journeys, with many drawing a spikey ball representing the disease.

“Imagine what … people can do if we actually stopped all the nonsense and realized one world, one soul, one planet,” said Jafri, who has four more days to complete the work.

For the day’s last show on the canvas, girls and boys performed an acrobatic, interpretive dance to John Lennon’s “Imagine”, with Jafri on the sidelines giving encouragement.

“Completely intertwine with what’s in front of you. Become one,” he appealed.

British artist Sacha Jafri aims to raise more than $30 million for children’s charities by creating the world’s largest canvas painting and auctioning it off in 60 sections https://t.co/VN0PID7Ybl pic.twitter.com/tST7APappA

— Reuters (@Reuters) September 28, 2020

Jafri shared pictures of his masterpiece on his Instagram account for the world to see. He wrote, “Aiming to connect 1 billion people around the World, becoming the largest Social, Artistic & Philanthropic project in history, creating funds & support in the sectors of Education, Connectivity & Well-Being for those in the poorest and most in-need areas of the World. Ultimately aiming to save the lives of 10 million Children who desperately need our help (sic).”

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