Bengaluru Artist transforms pothole into a colourful protest site

In an attempt to draw attention to the city's pothole problem, popular artist Baadal Nanjundaswamy Bengaluru transformed a waterlogged, pothole-ridden road in the city's Cubbon Park Junction area into a colourful protest site. The art showed a mermaid sitting on the side of the enormous pothole with her tail submerged. He chose a water-filled pothole in the Central Business District in Bengaluru to create an artificial pond and a live model Sonu Gowda posing as a mermaid. This took place days after Karnataka Chief Minister K Siddaramaiah asked for over 15,000 potholes on Bengaluru's scarred roads to be fixed within 15 days, a unique and colourful protest. Two years ago, Nanjundaswamy caught the Internet's attention after creating a life-size crocodile and swamp as an installation to highlight a pothole that hadn't been fixed for days. Photos of his unique artwork quickly went viral and pushed embarrassed local authorities to swing into action. According to the News18, four deaths have been linked to accidents that happened due to bad roads, and the government has only just given ultimatums to the civic agency to take up repairs on a war footing though that has not been possible as continuing rains do not allow repair works Monsoon rain and frequent flooding over the last few months have battered Bengaluru's roads and the municipality claims there are now more than 15,000 potholes in the city's 14,000 km road network which they have said can only be fixed once the rain stops.