The dull, drab and often dirty walls of Bengaluru are transforming into an open gallery by colourful, meaningful graffiti or street art. Voluntary groups and graffiti arts are bringing a new respectability to what was once considered vandalism. The graffiti culture which is popular in cities like London, New York, Paris and Berlin is catching on in Bengaluru.
Students of Srishti School of Art have painted many walls in Yelahanka New Town, as a part of their college project. For other artists graffiti is a means of creating awareness or cleaning up the walls.
The earliest manifestation of street art began with the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) attempting to beautify the walls of the city by commissioning artists. The BBMP’s intention was to “beautify” the city by showing the glorious heritage of Karnataka.
Jog Falls, palaces of Mysuru, monuments of North Karnataka and other tourist and cultural destinations appeared on the walls of major streets in different colours and scales. While some appreciated the visual imaginary many artists in the city saw it as a unilateral move.
The beautification exercise had different themes. In schools and colleges, the walls had educative and patriotic messages and paintings and walls alongairport road had pictures of India’s tourist places. Kanakapura Road had stencil paintings of nature, and Bannerghatta Road had pictures of animals. Over the years some of these paintings have worn off the walls.
The Urban Avant-garde project that was taken up in 2012 along with the Malleswaram Accessibility Project, Jaaga, and Goethe Institut came up with a grey painting of a wrinkle-filled man’s face screaming “Ignorance is blindness of the soul” on a crumbling wall in Malleswaram.
On St Mark’s Road artists Ullas Hydoor and Arjun Srinivas painted on the side-wall of Hard Rock Café for the purpose of a music video, an image which depicts freedom from hierarchy and has become almost an iconic part of the area.
In Halasuru (Ulsoor) the students of Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology painted the walls around the RBANMS Ground with several images, ranging from a mural map to ones that speak about the locality’s issues. The wall around the ground almost seems to come alive with colours and thoughts.
In Indiranagar on the wall facing the Goethe Institut on CMH Road artists Amitabh Kumar, Arzu Mistry and Srishti students co-conceived a beautiful mural. On one side artist Amitabh Kumar has drawn a series of hands as part of a stand-alone mural.
On Double Road Flyover several artists initiated by Jaaga, a city-based creative organisation as part of their Yellow UFO (Under Flyover) Project and in collaboration with BBMP, the area under the KH Double Road Flyover was given a complete artistic transformation. The artworks, featuring silhouettes and colourful designs of objects and people, were all done on bright yellow backgrounds.
In November 2015 Parisian graffiti artist, Marko Clement aka Marko 93 revealed his signature light painting techniques. His wall paintings are resplendent on Church Street and Rangoli and Rangoli Metro Art Centre, where he created a mural with local artists.
(This article was published in the recent issue of Karnataka Today Magazine)
