Street art united

A mural in Bandra by Inkbrushnme and Drift

In the past week, the boundary wall of Oceanic, a residential complex off Carter Road in Bandra, has become home to some beautiful murals. The idea, sparked off by a few artists who wanted to celebrate Women’s Day by collaborating on an artwork, has now turned the wall into an art walk of sorts. Lending support to these artists is the art community Visual Disobedience. Suprateek Chatterjee, the project’s editor, says, “We helped the artists get permission from the society, and got them paints and brushes.”
The pieces have very distinct styles. Artist Ayesha Kapadia’s typographic piece simply says ‘Kyun’; artist Vandhana Rajan Swamy’s piece is an intricate eyeball octopus; comic illustrator Ahmed Sikandar’s mural is caricature-like with a face surrounded by bees and Avantika Mathur’s surreal piece deals with the feminine form.
The largest of them is a collaboration between street artists Drift and Inkbrushnme, which has a massive dragon snaking its way across the wall. The murals also include one by visiting German graffiti artists Crap and Hais. “The location is to the artworks’ advantage.

Children from the nearby chawls, students from Rizvi college and the people living in the buildings around, everybody has reacted positively to the artworks. A woman who saw us working sent us sandwiches the next day. It’s a clear sign that more of this should happen in the city,” says Chatterjee. No one can disagree with that.

kevin.lobo@expressindia.com