Is it time for an Indian Banksy? The list of issues in need of public scrutiny is growing by the day but Indian street art continues to play it safe
The HinduSome years ago, in the U.S., I remember attending a charity auction organised by the Philadelphia Arts League. It is hard to qualify Banksy’s work — site-specific and done at night — as art or vandalism; but as a critic noted, it is the most essential form of public vandalism. Evocative messaging For the past decade, despite increasing popularity and visibility, Indian street art has been a reluctant commentator in the public sphere, even though it originally evolved from the political graffiti of Kolkata. At Kala Ghoda in Mumbai, and annual street art festivals in Bengaluru, Kochi and Pune, portraits of famous personalities cut across building facades, trees spread their painted branches around corner walls; murals even appear on private properties that abut the road. Religion, separatism, censorship, communal rage, growing illiteracy, bureaucratic apathy, political arrogance, business bluster, media manipulation, the list of Indian issues in need of public scrutiny grows day by day.
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