The Hollywood film King Kong was the story of a giant ape that went to New York City in search of his love. But do you know of the gorilla that’s popping up all over Chennai? If you haven’t seen it yet, head right over to Jemma Jose’s Instagram page!
Jemma’s gorilla makes its presence felt (or not) in almost every situation imaginable. Sometimes it appears playing the keyboard as a man tries to make up to his partner. Other times, the gorilla appears to blow hot air balloons out of a bubble blower. It quietly tiptoes around sleeping dogs, paints skies with pink-streaked clouds, pole vaults across buildings and enjoys Chennai sunsets. Could gorillas be any more adorable?
This goofy gorilla is part of Jemma’s 100-day project, #gorillagirlathon. A 2-D animator and artist based out of Chennai, Jemma began the project only to keep herself creatively engaged. “And to be more regular on social media,” Jemma adds.
But what made her think of gorillas in particular? “Well, it was my husband Rishad (then fiancé) who gave me the idea,” she says. A phone conversation between the two, while Jemma was at work in the kitchen, would spark off an interesting thought process that would result in the creation of the this quirky gorilla.
“According to him, which was nothing like it, by the way, it “sounded” like there was a gorilla in the kitchen,” she laughs. Jemma went on to work on a short film during her design course in NID Ahmedabad where this gorilla was featured for the first time. When she later decided to work on a 100-day project, it was this gorilla Jemma went back to.
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So does the gorilla have a name? “No, the gorilla has no name, no gender. It’s just the gorilla,” she chuckles.
At the time of writing, Jemma had just completed her 74th illustration and the project is nearing its close. For the first 50 photographs, she worked on her own photos. “I’d randomly choose a photograph from a folder on my desktop. I then requested people to send me their photos, to give back something to the community. I was quite surprised by the response, I took in about 25 entries,” she says.
The rest of the project will be completed with her own photos. Jemma plans to work on an anime series next.