The idea of art is a wide-ranging and open-ended concept; the decision of whether something has aesthetic value largely depends on contemporary thought, social location and more importantly, authority within the world of art. Art essentialises the spirit of creative imagination and unconventional cultural thinking; it is not only a visual outpouring of the artist’s inner emotions or conflict, but is also significantly shaped by the social, political and cultural happenings of the milieu around them.
What is street art
Broadly speaking, street art simply refers to art that is located on the streets or any urban/rural public space as opposed to the museum or an institutional setting; metaphorically, the essence and experience of the street features into this particular form, even if it is not physically present. To simplify this further, Nicholas Riggle highlights street art as belonging to the masses in terms of originality, skill, creativity, beauty and depth of meaning.
One of the most famous street artists is London’s Banksy, an anonymous artist, who first went viral for the anti-authoritarian art that propped up in several parts of the city. Some of these artworks include commentaries on the plight of animals in the face of declining forests, issues of poverty, relating to children, and more recently, on the Palestinian genocide.
Street Art in New Delhi
Delhi’s street art gained momentum in the 2010s when the St+Art Foundation was established. It played a crucial role in transforming the streets of the city where artists from across the country came together to collaborate on truly inspiring forms of artwork. Another foundation is the Delhi Street Art, whose late founder, Yogesh Saini, notably mentored and inspired several younger artists and remained widely influential in the flourishing of street art in the city. His vision derived from the idea of the city as belonging not just to the authorities, but also to its people, therefore, the responsibility of “maintaining it” was to be equally borne by the citizens and the government.
Lodhi Colony
On of such major initiatives was undertaken in 2015 in the Lodhi Colony of South Delhi, which also became famous as India’s first public art district in 2019. The area welcomes Indian and international artists alike and now hosts diverse genres of murals as part of an open-air gallery. Alongside unique interpretations of realism, surrealism, abstract art, graffiti, commentators have also noted the focus on declining traditional art such as Gond, Sign Painting and Shekawati, which has particularly fostered inter-cultural interactions and intersectional narratives to coexist.
According to Guilia Ambrogi, co-founder of St+Art Foundation, the conception of Lodhi colony as an art district was to create democratic, accessible and contemporary art in public spaces that would imbue them with deep cultural meaning. The idea was also to make it inclusive and diverse, as can be seen from artwork centred around issues of gender (special features with women and LGBTQ+ artists), healthcare (featuring medical professionals during the Covid-19 pandemic), class (including ideas and artists from nearby slum areas) and so on.
Tihar Jail
Prisons are generally perceived as bleak and deplorable spaces with very little presence in academic or social discourse. The Tihar Jail in New Delhi, which is also South Asia’s largest jail, presents a unique perspective on our stereotyped view of prison inmates. The boundary wall, which faces the main road stretching from Lajwanti Gardens to Hari Nagar Depot, hosts the largest mural painted in India; Sreshti Verma details how the mural was painted as a part of the Delhi Street Art Festival, co-founded by Hanif Kureshi.
While the mural was painted by students of the Delhi College of Art and Commerce, the poem called ‘चारदीवारी’ (Chardiwari, referring to the four enclosing walls of a space) written in the mural itself was penned down by a woman inmate. It contained heart-wrenching lyrics of longing, separation, love and misery. It humanises the inmates of the prison, prompting the general public to reconsider norms concerning social ostracism and the harsh prison conditions.
Connaught Place
A popular site which also flourished as a haven for street artists was Connaught Place’s Shankar Market; the heritage building was originally designed and constructed by the British between 1929-33. In contemporary life of the city, CP, as it is popularly referred to, is a favoured market for all genres, be it shopping or food. The Shankar Market is particularly known for its wide range of ethnic cloth and finished products.
The Shankar Market Project was a joint venture of the New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) and the Delhi Street Art (DSA) to reinvent the place aesthetically. According to late Yogesh Saini, the founder of DSA, the goal has been to bring art out from the privileged halls of art galleries and into the arena accessed by the public. Some of the themes at play in the Shankar Market street art range from music, culture, food and dance.
Hauz Khas
In addition to the popular cafes and shops, Hauz Khas village is also the proud host of an entire archive of street art. Its gentrified neighbourhood shares space with informal localities while also being the heart of the city’s Islamic past through several monuments. Street art here has propped up on the walls of not just residential buildings, but also schools, parking lots, water tanks and so on.
According to Okuda, a Spanish artist who also worked in Hauz Khas, “It’s like a conflict between the roots and capitalism. My art always deals with such issues. So here I painted a monkey head, a cow head and a bear head inspired by the spirituality of Indian culture. And inside the spirituality of the animals is capitalism, because capitalism is now in India.” This is evident of how street art particularly allows for alternative expression which poses a significant challenge to the dominant way of thought or expression at the same time.
Significance of street art
Even though in current art scenario, many of the street art pieces find their way into the museum or high-valued auctions and are often sold for millions, the art form inherently carries a sense of non-conformity to the dominant ideology. It allows for greater engagement with the general public but more importantly, fosters a spirit of political, social, economic and cultural awareness and critical thinking on several issues.
References
1. RIGGLE, NICHOLAS ALDEN. “Street Art: The Transfiguration of the Commonplaces.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, vol. 68, no. 3, 2010, pp. 243–57. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40793266.
3. Salib, Peter N. “The Law of Banksy: Who Owns Street Art?” The University of Chicago Law Review, vol. 82, no. 4, 2015, pp. 2293–328. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43655484.
4. https://www.thebluekite.com/blogs/exploring-delhi-s-street-art-scene-where-creativity-comes-alive/