In Chennai, volunteers, sometimes residents of the respective neighbourhood, carrying paint boxes and brushes, in the early hours of the day, and recreating drab and abused walls in a splash of colour is now a sight, more common than ever before.
The city has a raft of organisations that promote beautification of public spaces, especially walls. Government agencies also seem to warm up to the idea, and often give permission and their walls to such initiatives.
One of the examples that spring readily to mind is the wall-painting exercise carried out by Environmentalist Foundation of India nearly a year ago as part of a residents-connect project on the walls of the Chennai Metro Water Area 13 (Adyar) building on Brodies Castle Road.
It was an initiative where residents painted the walls with images and messages relating to environment protection.
There are certain inevitable questions around this phenomenon.
The most basic question is this: Does such exercises really prevent defacement of walls?
At Brodies Castle Road, there is proof. The paintings are still intact, and posters have not been pasted on the portion bearing the wall-paintings.
Priya Jemima of Geo India Foundation, which does messages-driven wall-painting for government and government-aided schools, has a similar example to offer.
"Last year, we painted a wall of the Chennai Girls Higher School in Nungambakkam, near the Chennai tennis stadium. The painting is still there to be seen, though there was an election this year, and during election time, posters are only to be expected."
Karam Korpom Foundation undertakes community-art programmes where wall-paintings are done in places that are rife with dumping of grabage and open urination.
Uma of Karam Korpom Foundation says, "By and large, people leave these walls alone. They think twice before defacing a wall that bears a painting. Employees with private conservancy operator Ramky have told us that the walls with paintings and the space around them are usually kept clean."
The other question is: When will Chennai's street art attain civic avant-garde status. Wall paintings that can shake people up, and that way, possibly get them to do the right thing.
The "Naaya Nee?" wall-art campaign by WakeUp Chennai to prevent al-fresco urination seemed to achieve that effect. It appealed to both emotion and logic.
Doesn't Chennai have to shift to a higher gear and make street art, a powerful tool for civic change? Shouldn't there be paintings and installations that would call attention to bad roads and potholes and other civic peeves?
Write in your thoughts on the matter, and also send in images of attention-grabbing wall-art exercises across Chennai to downtownfeedback@thehindu.co.in
