For the past three days, four artists, Harsh Raman Singh Paul and Julia Szymanski, Nora Dilling and Stephnie Beulshausen from Germany have silently been painting a 40-foot wall on the main G. B Road, located opposite brothel number 53.
They come in at 6 a.m. despite the severe cold and leave by 3 p.m., when it is time for sex workers to begin their work.
On Saturday, the last day of their endeavour — many sex workers and their children gathered to thank the artists and bid them goodbye. The emotional artists promised to paint all walls, and make the other filthy and narrow streets bright “soon”.
The group, led by 26-year-old Paul, who is an artist and a graphic designer, works purely for causes — at times with small funds or by spending from their own pockets. The painting on this wall is a result of Paul’s year-long project called WOW — Walls of the Women.
Says Paul: “It is a social project that celebrates women and their stories through the medium of art. The fabric of women’s stories, historical, mythological and social, has always been interesting — from a Goddess to a power holder, to a manager at home, a nurturer, a bread earner and a martyr. These roles, however important and relevant, go largely unnoticed. We barely hear smaller stories of a woman’s spirit. WOW plans to change exactly that. It will take those stories, those moments and the essence of that expression, and place it in the public domain through a structured collaborative street art project.”
The crew is focussing on street art to generate a buzz. Nora, Stephanie and Julia incidentally belong to an all-female group called Ara Peng in Germany. They have joined hands with Paul and professional photographer Karan Talwar. Together they have formed a studio called Harkat, meaning movement.
The studio will keep on launching projects on women through artistic endeavours and make them public. The G.B. Road WOW project, for instance, has been documented through photography and videography. Julia, Nora and Stephanie have spoken to most sex workers and gathered their tales of tears and anguish, the uncertain future of their kids and so on.
“The most moving aspect of their lives is that these women are extremely protective about their children. So we have delineated it through a tigress protecting her cubs on the wall,” said Nora.
Interestingly, brothel owners refused to allow them to paint the brothel walls. So the group had to paint on a public wall close to a garbage dump. Getting No Objection Certificates from various Departments was also an issue. “But NGO Kat Katha, which works in this area, helped us. Else, it wouldn’t have been possible,” said Paul. The group hopes that brothel owners will allow them to paint the private walls in future.
