Street murals in India need to move beyond literal directness and have to rely on experience, says Uma Nair
It was a series of graffiti and street art images of Paris that made me understand the nature and dynamics of public art. Rupin Thomas, an economist and photographer, had captured French artist Marko Weng’s portrait of Frida Kahlo along rue de l’Ourcq in the 19th district. Marko93, the name that he goes by on Instagram, has nicknamed himself “The French Lighter,” because of the constant exploration of light in his work. In this giant fresco, Marko pays homage for the second time to Frida Kahlo, an artist known for her role in the emancipation of woman.
“Paris is an open-air museum,” says Thomas. “The graffiti is emblematic of hip-hop culture, there is humour and irony in the mischievous stencils, there are also deeply stirring poetic collages as well as monumental murals with magnificent interior messages covering many facades. Between Montmartre and the Butte-aux-Cailles, even the smallest space is an invitation to create art but it is a process of continuation and it also echoes the voice of rebellion. Here is a voice that we respect because it carries within itself the conversations of the past,” he adds.
Gandhi in street art
Walk through the Lodhi Road’s district and you would find a mosaic of Indian and international artists. There are elephants, birds and many other images. But what doesn’t translate is the truth that street art cannot be a mere portrait as it has to be hinged on an experience. While bringing in international artists is a great testimony to urban art, the underlying signature of personal intuitive experience born out of one’s own dimensions of experience can never be substituted by telling someone to merely paint a portrait. This, then is my problem with so many images painted across cities in India.
The Lodhi Colony Police Station displays a screaming mural of Mahatma Gandhi on its façade with colours that identify with the department. There is nothing wrong with the portrait. It is brilliantly executed but just by merely writing Peer parayi jaae re in the Devnagiri script, it does not speak of the insignia of urban metaphors.
Marko’s Frida Kahlo
Coming back to the portrait of Frida Kahlo by Marko93. Inspired by the fact that Frida was often surrounded by animals, he included a rather large feline with piercing eyes, further showing the contrast between light and dark. But more than the stunning mural features, it was Marko’s brilliance at handling the mosaic details and coupling art and aesthetics that are compelling.
In a self portrait, she is flanked by a black monkey, on the left and a black cat on the right. Marko also borrowed elements of relativity from the self-portrait where the parrot is bigger than the monkey and the cat for example. His analysis of the fresco is brilliant as it illuminates the asymmetrical composition. Scholars state that Marko painted this twice.
At first, a large parenthesis “contained” the white monkey, Frida and the parrot. The space to the right of the parenthesis was “reserved” and only a background was painted without a subject. The cat, which breaks the symmetry and is located out of the parenthesis, was added second time. What interested Marko in the cat was its eyes. The body of the cat, with a blue background and black outline, in “calligraffisme” (abstract style which mixes calligraphy, urbanity and spontaneity) is “sketched”. On the other hand, the face of the cat is reduced and is summarised with its eyes painted a fluorescent yellow. To enhance the effect, the contours of the eyes are intentionally unclear to translate glare. He called his fresco on the rue de l’Ourcq. Marko painted cat and cat eyes with phosphorescent paintings. Marko continues his research on the light: the eyes of the black cat mark a stage already out-of-date. But his process is uncanny as well as filled with countless meanings.
Using international artists as mentors
If India has to build on street art, we need an original language born of both personal as well as metaphoric meanderings and moorings. While bringing international artists is a great venture, how about having training workshops for Indian artists to understand the deeper intensities of street art all over the world and helping them understand how the greatest street art murals were created?
Just bringing in foreign artists to paint has momentary meaning. Let us make use of the visit to create lessons in learning for Indian artists. Art colleges across India and the Ministry of Culture play a huge role in this pedagogy. Art teachers, too, need to step in and activate that internal understanding and create islands of originality that must become a catalyst for the future.