Driving through Delhi roads in recent times, the splashes of colour are hard to miss. The writing seems to have sprung up in several places, almost overnight, providing a colourful respite from the grey and drab buildings.
The relatively new culture of graffiti is fast spreading not just in the city, but throughout the country. Is this just the new thing in vogue, or does graffiti hold promise as a form of expression to reach out to a mass audience?
Every graffiti artist uses a “tag” or signature that is unique to the person—a kind of an alias that is part of the artist's work. So while the work by ‘Bond' can be seen in the IIT subway, ‘Zine' has left his mark on several city walls. The community is a small one, but each artist has a distinct style. “We call ourselves writers, not artists,” says “Daku”, who prefers to write in Hindi, unlike Bond or Zine.
Daku began “writing” two years ago along with other graffiti artists, who were making their presence felt across the city. The graffiti artists often interact through streetfiles.org, an independent street art and photo sharing community. Daku, Bond and Zine painted together for sometime with locally available material like automobile paint cans and wall paints, slowly graduating to paints used for making graffiti. In that sense, Daku says, India is where the United States of America was in the Eighties, when graffiti began spreading as a culture: “They too, used automobile paints for graffiti.”
The spreading culture draws heavily from the Hip- Hop genre, and according to Daku, is all about spreading the notoriety associated with a name: “Graffiti is traditionally associated with rebellion,” he says. But that does not imply that a graffiti artist will necessarily be writing in protest. “They may not be angry all the time (while painting),” he says.
Daku, however, draws a distinction between graffiti and street art: “A street art guy will not be considered a writer. He will draw figures, characters, maybe send out a message through his work.”
Message sent…
By that definition, some of Daku's work also falls into the category of street art: drawing a donkey on a public wall where people frequently urinated, an image of social activist Anna Hazare with a blindfold, questioning the public's rote of “Main bhi Anna”, certainly send out a strong message. But most of the graffiti circuit in Delhi, he says, is inspired by hip-hop.
Daku also prefers to write in Hindi because “the man on the street can read Hindi. I want people to think. Graffiti as art is not just for the elite,” he says, adding that his work should be equally engaging for a pedestrian and a person driving a Mercedes.
In fact, one of the world's most well known graffiti artists is ‘Banksy', whose work surfaced around 1992 in England. His work carries a strong message, often taking on the establishment, government and war through extremely hard hitting, often three- dimensional graffiti in public spaces. Several of his works were identified as vandalism and covered or painted over. His identity remains a secret.
Banksy has been labelled “art terrorist” in the UK press, and uses the stencil technique to complete his work faster to avoid detection. While there is still no consensus on whether graffiti qualifies as a form of art, Banksy's work has been auctioned at the Bonham's auction house for as high as £288,000. Another noted graffiti artist is French stencil artist Jef Aérosol, who makes a living through graffiti as art.
“The kind of work Banksy has done is brilliant,” says Daku, adding that Banksy is an inspiration for graffiti artists the world over. “Indian graffiti still has a lot to learn before it reaches such dramatic forms of protest,” he adds.Regarding the spread of graffiti, a big question is the affordability of the raw material.
“A can of graffiti paint in a single colour costs anywhere between Rs. 200 to Rs. 350, and the “rich kids” in Delhi can afford that kind of money…The average person on the street does not have access to that kind of money. As of now, graffiti hasn't reached the street guy. And I have no idea if it will,” says Daku.
Speaking about graffiti as vandalism, Daku says the authorities are often unsure about how to treat these graffiti artists. Since the graffiti artists of Delhi prefer to paint in a group, and often at night, they have been accosted by the local police several times. The reactions have been different -- while once they were let off, another time, they were huddled to the local police station. “The idea,” according to Daku, “is to beautify a wall, a public space and not invade anyone's privacy.”
Does graffiti always come with a message? Do graffiti artists in India see it as a means of protest, or just an idle form of expression? While city walls have been scribbled upon most commonly to protest against the government, civic agencies, and more recently the Commonwealth Games, it is still some time before graffiti artists will be able to widely use it as a form of protest, or to reach out to the common man with a message.
