BackArt out on the streets
A remarkable bunch of artists are busy turning Delhi's walls and shelters into quirky, bold and colourful canvases
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The next time you’re on the flyover near the School of Planning and Architecture (SPA) at ITO, notice the floor-plan-like 3D “hole", a 19ft mural, at the complex—it’s a sign that German street artist 1010 was here.
The Capital has seen a surge in street art over the last three-four years. Restricted to “arty" districts like Khirki Extension, Hauz Khas Village and Shahpur Jat in the early days, works by now well-known street artists like Daku, Anpu Varkey and Yantr are leaving a mark on walls and building facades across town—even in places like the Delhi Police Headquarters at ITO, where German artist Hendrik Beikirch, popularly known as ECB, and Anpu had painted a 158ft mural of Mahatma Gandhi last year as part of the first St+Art Delhi street art festival.
1010 is making his geometrical “hole" in the SPA facade less than a kilometre from ECB and Anpu’s Gandhiji, as part of the second edition of the same festival. More than 15 Indian and international artists are taking part in the event that started more than a month ago.
There are at least two things that set 1010’s Delhi mural apart from anything he has done before. He has made a 65ft mural in Hamburg, Germany, but the SPA one is his largest undertaking with a spirit-level scale—he’s swearing off anything large with multiple straight lines after this for “quite some time".
Imprints
While the St+Art festival features artists with a proven track record, they aren’t the only ones turning New Delhi’s walls into canvases. In prominent corners of the city, amateurs too are leaving their imprint. In places like Shankar Market, Connaught Place and the Select Citywalk mall, Yogesh Saini’s Delhi St.Art group has taken up a mix of New Delhi Municipal Council, or NDMC, funded public art projects and privately funded wall art.
On 22 March, Delhi St.Art hit Gurgaon, adjacent to Delhi. “There’s a group called Gurgaon Rising who invited us," says Saini. “They whitewashed a 100m wall at Iffco Chowk and invited us to paint on it. The concept we are executing is nature reclaiming land—it will look like a city skyline, with tall buildings being peeled off the wall like a screen to give way to the wild."
Saini says there are many reasons why street art is taking wing in the Capital. In some parts, citizens groups like Gurgaon Rising want to clean up the walls to beautify spaces. In others, the NDMC is supporting ideas to spruce up the image of shopping centres like Shankar Market. Saini adds a third reason: The founders of Akshara Theatre, a quaint structure close to the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, have approached him to paint the walls adjacent to the theatre because taxi drivers and others often use them as an open-air urinal. The hope is that if the walls look beautiful, people will think twice.
Searching for a wall
Chauhan has been organizing community-based arts projects with the Khoj International Artists’ Association in Khirki Extension for more than 10 years. In a phone interview, she says that since it’s an unauthorized colony, homes and offices were under threat, even demolished on occasion. Chauhan and her friends, Matteo Ferraresi and Mattia Lullini, who were visiting from Italy three years ago, talked about ways to “brighten up the space". They sought, and got, permission from private home owners to cover some of their wall space with art. As work got under way, it piqued the curiosity of neighbours and the interest of other artists. Street artists like Yantr, Daku and Anpu, and another collective called Tiny Drops, came on board. The event snowballed from six artists in search of a wall, to a bustling street art, hip hop, and community engagement programme.
Chauhan’s interest, however, lies elsewhere—her focus is the Khirki community, and social change through art projects. She believes, in fact, that the recent surge in street art is counterproductive because the art isn’t “political at all". It’s growing too fast, she says, “Every other person thinks he’s a Banksy." It’s a reference to the elusive British street artist, painter and activist.
Of course, the organizers of St+Art Delhi 2015 want to keep the street art apolitical—for now. They’re just into their second year, the idea is still new. Often, people are curious about why the artists are painting walls—they can’t believe it’s not commercial.
“You would be surprised to learn how many (of the) homeless in the city are graduates," says Kamal Malhotra, director, Dusib. The idea, Malhotra adds, is to draw attention to the shelters—a temporary measure—and the plight of the homeless. “What they need," says Malhotra, “is a job."
Crochet and chaos
About 5km down the road from 1010’s art at the SPA, near the Sarai Kale Khan bus depot, Olek has spun a different yarn. Her signature crochet street art—in red, magenta and turquoise wool, and red, yellow and gold ribbons—now covers one of 200-plus blue shipping container-like night shelters in the city.
Days before it went up on 16 March—more later on how Olek stretched the art to cover the 40x8ft shelter, like a sock—crochet and chaos reigned at the second-floor South Extension workspace the St+Art Foundation borrowed for Olek’s project. Around 15 women from the non-profit AllKraftz and several volunteers milled about, shredding cloth to strips, sewing the strips on two machines loaned by the appliance maker USHA to make ribbons running into 90-odd kilometres and finally, knotting the ribbons and yarn to cover the whole shelter, which the homeless can rent at ₹ 10 for 24 hours.
“Everything is running on Indian Standard Time," Olek says, half-joking, half-complaining. There is a nervous energy about her. Even as she rolls a cigarette, she rues the delays at every step, with a deadline looming.
There are at least three ideas at work in Olek’s project. First, reusing things: The fabric for the work has been donated by designers, including Tarun Tahiliani, who no longer have any use for it. Second, as a supporter of women’s rights, she says this artwork was designed to generate employment for the tens of artisans who worked on the project with her. She also conducted a workshop to refine their crocheting skills beforehand. Third, to draw public attention to the glum night shelters.
On the day of the installation, Olek is wearing a Leheriya sari—a purchase from Pushkar, Rajasthan, where she spent Holi. It doesn’t stop her from climbing a wooden stepladder or working on the roof. The crochet has been transported to the site in pieces and Olek and her volunteers are stitching the pieces on to the night shelter. Children who live a 5-minute sprint away from the site spot a golden-haired lady and two crocheted elephants from their rooftops and come running to see what’s going on. They like the tusks they spotted at the back of the shelter but they like the butterfly pattern on the front even more.
Olek’s “cosy" for the squat structure draws attention from several hundred metres away on the National Highway. Sahib Preet Singh, a hospitality student at The Lalit Suri Hospitality School in Faridabad, was travelling back to his east Delhi home when the transformed shelter compelled him to park on the side of the road and walk over. “I pass this way every day. This will cheer me up some on my way back," he grins.
‘Spider Sadhus’
Help is pouring in for the St+Art festival. Artists are working without a fee, Asian Paints Ltd has provided paint free of cost, tens of volunteers (mostly college-goers) are giving their time, friends and family are offering cars and workspace when needed. Organizations like the Japan Foundation, Pro Helvetia Swiss Arts Council, and the Goethe Institut, even the Polish embassy, are footing some part of the bill for the airfare and stay of artists from their countries.
St+Art has a number of Indian artists too this year. Harsh Raman, who started The Brinda Project in 2012 in collaboration with Brazilian artists and the Walls of Women street art initiative in the red-light district on GB Road, has his concept ready: “Spider Sadhu".
The work is for a two-storey wall at a school in Jor Bagh, says Raman. His hybrid of Spiderman and sadhus is a mashup of two trains of thought. He grew up reading comic books, preferring the anti-heroes who were “badasses on the side of good". And he started painting the Sadhu series because he’s curious about faith. “As a nation, so much of our life is dictated by mythology and superstition. I make these sadhus in impossible (yoga) postures," he explains. The superpowers of Spider-Man and the super mysticism of the sadhus will combine in his work too, possibly shooting out positive vibes instead of webs.
Raman says children make the best audience—not only do they accept ideas, they’re also great at the guessing game.
When he was painting a mural depicting life and death in Hauz Khas Village as part of The Brinda Project, the grown-ups came out criticizing the skeletal figure of death. “This is not good; what are you painting a skull for?" they berated. The children, however, were completely enthralled by the colour and drama of the event. “As a project takes shape, everyone starts guessing what the picture might be," says Raman. “The children are always the quickest to figure it out."
Typically done without permission, street art is often taken down or destroyed. Olek says she has had her crochet art burnt, torn, cut up and thrown into dustbins. When she covered New York’s Wall Street Bull in pink and purple overalls in 2010, it took her a whole night. The maintenance people ripped it apart the next morning in 5 minutes.
Though her work here is, as Daku would say, “commissioned vandalism", it’s expected to be taken down in a month or so. For, the yarn and ribbons will attract grime. The St+Art Foundation will take a call on when.
Another reason to try and catch some of the art right away: There are scissor lifts, boom lifts and all manner of cool equipment parked on Delhi streets where these murals are coming up. If levitation as a concept interests you, go visit.
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