Painting is on the Wall

Delhi walls have seldom been canvas for art. We do have cell-phone advertisements, pretty heroines on hoardings and political slogans, but hardly art on roadside walls.

French graffiti artist C215 aka Christian Gueacute;my has left his mark on the walls of Karol Bagh

Delhi walls have seldom been canvas for art. We do have cell-phone advertisements, pretty heroines on hoardings and political slogans, but hardly art on roadside walls. But if you drive down the bylanes of Karol Bagh these days, you8217;ll see striking stencil work that will force you to take a second look.

A few metres from the Clarks8217;s International Hotel, in an open space littered with refuse, a black-and-white goat shares wall space with a turbaned man. On the wall of a run-down building nearby, vivid red scooters look down on an overflowing drain. Each picture is detailed and the stenciling is so intricate that it stands out in its dismal surroundings.

These are the works of French graffiti artist C215 aka Christian Gueacute;my, who is travelling the streets of the world, leaving a mark of his journey in unlikely places 8212; on buildings, broken boundary walls and a rusty autorickshaw. He passed by Delhi on October 7-16, and the walls of Karol Bagh bear witness to that.

8220;Street art is like surfing. You have to travel to experience new situations, new contexts and new people. Karol Bagh is the very heart of Delhi. It was the right place for me to feel the real, urban atmosphere of India,8221; says Gueacute;my, before rattling off his previous trips to the US, Brazil, Israel, Morocco, Poland, France, England, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands. 8220;I love to place my characters in abandoned buildings. They inhabit those places like ghosts, they underline the life that once was there,8221; he says. His images are solitary faces and figures, captivating in their loneliness. Chand Prakash, who faces a Gueacute;my work from his shop Prakash Electricals, says, 8220;Everyday I look at the face of the woman on the opposite wall and wonder why it moves me so much. I wonder about that firang artist. Cars slow down and people take pictures with their camcorders and cell phones.8221;

Graffiti artists often carry their instinct for subversion, rebellion and anonymity to their names and strange signatures are scrawled beneath their art. TAKI 183 was one of the earliest graffiti artists that took New York by storm, in the early 1970s, spawning others like Barbara 62 and Cay 161. Beneath the Karol Bagh artwork is the signature C215. 8220;I chose this name because it sounds like a code or a jail number. Life, sometimes, is like a prison. Also, it implies that we are nothing more than anonymous numbers in a city,8221; says the 35-year-old Gueacute;my, who has also spent time behind the bars 8220;in another century when I was 208221;.

Gueacute;my, who has been drawing since childhood, has a master8217;s degree in art history from the Sorbonne. 8220;It was only three years ago that I turned to stencil art in order to place nice pictures on the streets quickly and without authorisation,8221; he says. Armed with stencils and aerosol cans, he was often the centre of public attention at Karol Bagh. 8220;The crowd was sometimes a problem, especially with so many excited kids,8221; he says. Nevertheless, they were his focus in Delhi, painting portraits, animals and scooters that he knew they would enjoy. 8220;The onlookers loved it and gave me a good feedback which made my day,8221; he says. He will be back in India soon, this time probably in Puducherry 8220;since I am French8221;. Walls, be ready.