Power Up: Tarun Godara

Photos by Brandon Gray

“It was a long played out cosmic joke.”

Is how Tarun Godara feels about how he wound up in Sudbury.

Born and raised in New Delhi, India, Tarun was always painting and drawing as a young boy, later getting into manga and realistic work. Eventually, he decided to pursue art professionally and planned a move to Barcelona, Spain, to study 19th century art. That’s when the cosmos started laughing.

Tarun’s visa was declined due to an error; he was dejected, but knew he still had to leave home and go somewhere else. A travel agent recommended Canada, and seduced by the pictures of lakes and trees and northern lights he decided to give Cambrian College a shot in 2017 and has been here ever since.

While no Barcelona, Tarun believes winding up in Sudbury happened for a reason (or reasons): He’s grown more independent, and being away from home has given him a new appreciation for it.

As he puts it: “When you grow up in a place you get sick of it and you need to get sick of it.”

Back home, his artwork wasn’t inspired by India and the Hinduism he was raised with, but now it inspires much of his artwork.

Just look at the semi-self-portrait Tarun painted on his hydro box for Up Here 6. He managed to pack a whole story, and history, into the piece he describes as “a being which is about all human notions of sexuality and gender, part of nature, and a combo of good and evil.”

The third eye and multiple arms are references to the Hindu god Shiva and goddess Lakshmi; the red paint on his hands and feet—typically reserveced for women—a criticism the backlash he faced expressing his femininity and being a gay man in India; the tiny background characters in teal and white a celebration of nature and the style and values of the Warli people, one of the oldest tribes in India; and the red hand on his face an acknowledgement and reminder to never forget the missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada. The whole piece is also a nod to the South Asian community in Sudbury.

Discover Tarun’s hydro box in the parking lot behind Café Obscura at College and Pine Street.

At the end of the day, Tarun said he wanted to “mash everything into one thing with tiny metaphors.”