A peace dove slicing through a nuclear weapon.
AB Wire
Anjali Chandrashekar, 22, a New York-based designer won the third prize in the UN Poster for Peace contest presented by the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs to raise awareness of the need for nuclear disarmament.
Chandrasekhar, who is originally from Chennai, won with her poster of a peace dove slicing through a nuclear weapon. It’s titled ‘Cutting Barriers through Peace’. She won $1,000 for her third prize.
Apart from the three winners, 9 honorable mentions were chosen from among more than 4,100 entries representing 123 countries.
Chandrasekhar was only 10 when she founded ‘Picture It’, a non-governmental organization that uses imagery to raise awareness and funds for various health, humanitarian and environmental causes.
“Nuclear disarmament is usually spoken about on such a high level and I believe that art has the power to humanize some of the most pressing issues that the world faces today,” she told the UN News Center.
“It also transcends barriers of age, language and literacy so I thought this was a great opportunity for me to show that a brush can be mightier than arms.”
At the award ceremony on May 3rd, ki Moon said, “This competition is a wonderful celebration of creativity, but it has an important purpose: to reaffirm the United Nations historic commitment to nuclear disarmament. Young people did not create nuclear weapons, but it may be their task to eliminate them once and for all.”
Others present at the awards ceremony included actor Michael Douglas, the UN Messenger of Peace.
On her Facebook page, Chandrashekar said: “While this night is one I will cherish forever it also restored my belief in the power art has to humanize some of the most pressing issues the world faces today.”
She added: “My journey in activism has been a long and exciting one. While we are ways away from achieving this tremendously difficult challenge, I believe that #peaceispossible and that art can speak a universal language by creating awareness and hope for a better future!”
The first prize went to Ivan Ciro Palomino Huamani from Lima, Peru, for his poster titled “Spinning Peace.” It features a nuclear weapon being unraveled into string which is then used to fly kites and balloons, and to jump rope.
The 38-year-old said he wanted his image to motivate people “to conscientiously think of how we can save our planet. After all it is our home, it is where we live. ”