I think therefore Graffiti gets 20 leading artists to put up their versions of wall art, along with reserving one wall for you to go berserk with aerosol cans. Our question: can graffiti be confined to closed doors?
I Think Therefore Graffiti gets 20 leading artists to put up their versions of wall art, along with reserving one wall for you to go berserk with aerosol cans. Our question: can graffiti be confined to closed doors?
"Graffiti (art) became synonymous with the voices that quietly, sometimes anonymously, vehemently roared against private property, homogeneity, and many other forms of exclusions that individuals experienced in the marginalised neighbourhoods of developed nations," says artist Rakhi Peswani in her curatorial note on the exhibition, I Think Therefore Graffiti, which is currently on show at The Guild Art Gallery.
Against such a background, it almost seems contradictory to have this form of colourful counterculture cocooned in an art gallery, with works of established and newer artists neatly strung besides each other. But since we are still creating a dialogue through this form of art, we shall try overlooking this.
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The viewer can attempt to interpret the heavy use of lipstick visible in Vishal Dar's works, take up the issue of gender and identity politics, as in Mithu Sen's paint-dripping art that reads I can imagine myself as an artist but I c*nt imagine my paintings redone by a woman and figure the evolution of man disappearing into a wall in Gigi Scaria's works or decipher Apnavi Thacker's vibrant scribbles scream Vide, Aude, Tace (See, Dare, Be Silent).
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The Latin phrase used by the Freemasons as their motto finds meaning in her graffiti, which is also essentially a secret activity that might be put up in a public sphere. But this doesn't allow for public access into the artist's true identity.
Slogans come alive in the works of Balaji Poona where there is bombardment of text and images (like the media?) while Sathyanand Mohan's puts colour to Gil Scott-Heron's song The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. "Certain revolutions, like the struggle for the freedom of the blacks will never gain priority in mainstream media," says Mohan. "This sort of news selection applies anywhere else in the world too."
If driving past the amateur graffiti put up by college students along the Tulsi Pipe Road seems too driven towards pop culture and erratic messages of world peace, veer towards the SoBo art space for more definite hard-hitting messages of this kind.
TILL: September 8. AT: The Guild Art Gallery, 02/32, Kamal Mansion, second floor, Arthur Bunder Road,u00a0 Colaba. Call: 22880116
Spray your thoughts to speak up
If you step into The Guild Art Gallery around noon, like we did, you will notice a freshly-painted wall in one corner.
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Grab one of the many spray cans lying next to the wall canvas and you can go berserk with graffiti that can serve as an extension to yourself.
You do not need any super design sensibilities; all you need is a thought that you want to pump life into.
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It seems paradoxical that you are almost allocated an area for your graffiti art, rather than making a rebellious comment by occupying a part of the public space, like how the West usually treats this art form.
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"The idea was to make this art form more inclusive and open up the private space of an art gallery to the public," says Ketaki, Deputy Director of the gallery.
The guys at the gallery click pictures of the art every few days and post it on their Facebook page TheGuild Mumbai.
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