A group of youngsters is painting public spaces in an attempt to bring people together, and make the city more colourful, says Jaideep Sen.
Ridhi D’Cruz, Shilo Shiv Suleman and Siddharth Chadha, all three in their early twenties, were bound to land in trouble with their simple, yet curious plan. A few months back, when the trio – armed with an assortment of brushes, rags, sandpaper, plastic bags, chalk, charcoal, penknives, scissors, cans of paint, mugs and buckets – decided to execute their intentions on an unfortunate wall in Vasanthnagar, things went out of hand. The plan was elementary – they would scrub the soiled wall clean, and then paint murals on it. They were certain about one other aspect – they would enact their workmanship in broad daylight, with no covert intentions of bushwhacking whatsoever, to avoid all allegations of malicious mischief.
The plan failed, and an abrupt dustup with miffed passers-by led to the groups being conferred the title of graffiti-makers. But “this is NOT graffiti”, screams a post by D’Cruz on the group’s blog, named after what they call themselves, the Wallflowers. “Graffiti is more sub-culture, underground, something that’s done in the night,” she explained. “We are not vandals, we’re not anti-government. The connotations of graffiti, for me, are more antagonistic.” “There was nothing serious about this,” clarified Chadha. “We wanted to keep things light-hearted and fun.”
Undaunted by that encounter (they were asked to clean up and leave), the Wallflowers decided to give their plan another shot – at Rest House Road, on September 29. This time, the objections were far fewer. Chadha and D’Cruz said they’d been inspired by the Wall Project, which their friends recently took on in Mumbai, painting street walls in the areas of Parel and Bandra. “I’m tired of looking at plain walls,” said D’Cruz. “The idea is to generate different responses from spaces that you’d otherwise pass by without noticing.” When they descended upon Rest House Road on that Tuesday afternoon, even the cops went past them without batting an eyelid, said D’Cruz. One irate neighbour sought to raise the alarm, but her concerns blew over as the children of the area moved in, soon as school was out, to join in with the paintwork, she added.
Their main purpose is to increase community participation and interactions between people, said Chadha. In the weeks after their first session, the Wallflowers were invited by a government school in Adugodi, and by the art collective Jaaga, to make use of their spaces. In another event, co-hosted by the Indian Youth Climate Network at Bangalore Central Mall, they gathered friends to construct a collage entirely out of waste – newspapers, plastic packets, CDs, floppy discs and the like. The plan is to circulate that piece – titled “WHAT a WASTE!” – among malls and art venues, to urge people to bring in their junk, which will then be recycled by the NGO Saahas.
“We don’t charge for our work,” explained Chadha. “This is something we have taken time out for.” While Chadha is an aspiring filmmaker and journalist, working on a project related to media piracy with the Alternative Law Forum, D’Cruz said she’s pursuing prospects of higher education abroad, and Suleman is already a noted artist. “We want to inspire other people to do the same thing,” said D’Cruz. Their blog, therefore, includes instructive posts on seeking permissions, materials required, and methods of working on walls; the cost of one such job was about Rs 1,000, says a note. D’Cruz added that they preferred staying clear of political messages for now, though they weren’t averse to social themes. “We’re not in a position to match the scale of government projects like the ones you see in Malleswaram, Majestic area, and when you’re driving back from the airport,” said Chadha. D’Cruz added that she often found such messages to be insular: “Bangalore has burgeoned into a cosmopolitan space, but all these writings are in Kannada.”
“An important point of our project is that it’s not a prerequisite for you to be an artist,” said D’Cruz (who, like Chadha, hasn’t studied art). “I fear that when art gets heavy, it can put people off.” As for their own public art, it appears that the Wallflowers themselves can now allege hooliganism. In a few days after that first project, the group’s murals have already been subjected to random acts of vandalism.
Drive by Rest House Road for a glimpse of the Wallflowers project. Visit www.bangalorewonderwall.blogspot.com for instructions on how to obtain permission to paint on walls and materials required.
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