The mysterious man dipping Osmania biscuit into the Irani tea cup on the Necklace Road will no longer do so. The street art emblematic of Hyderabad with the backdrop of Charminar created by Nilesh from Pune is being walled up by the family that owns the property.
The street art was created as part of the festival by St-Art Foundation, Krishnakriti Foundation, art@telangana and Telangana government aimed at creating an art district in November 2016 along with the Love Hyd installation.
“Oh! Is it? I am surprised. I knew there was opposition to figurative art in that locality, that’s why I did that art work after roaming around in the old city and meeting a number of people there. Once I began the sketch, people really liked it and came to observe the progress,” says Nilesh, when informed about the status of his work.
Life goes on
“We are adding a few rooms. When we gave the property for painting itself we had told that we will be building this. We have to live and carry on with our lives,” said the owner of the property.
“I was terribly disappointed when I saw the art being defaced for building during my morning walk. The art festival was aimed at creating and fostering a culture of appreciating art but this is a big loss,” says artist Laxman Aelay who was part of the team that brought the street art festival to Hyderabad.
“Ironically, the typographic installation is being copied and replicated without as much as a thank you. I saw one sign in Tarnaka about ‘Love BPC’. It was weird,” says Mr. Aelay.
Defacement
Artist Nirmala Biluka, who contributed to the street art festival with her version of Chakali Ailamma, felt that the city can do without this kind of disfigurement. “When these walls were painted we knew that some kind of interaction will be there between citizens and the art. There is with some of the paintings done on the boundary wall, but this is totally unexpected. As an artist I would feel very bad if my art is disfigured in such a way,” said Ms. Biluka.
“Life has to go on and art has to evolve. So what if the painting has been covered up. If the community wants me I will come again and create something new on the new wall,” says an unfazed Nilesh.
