In a break from political graffiti, Kerala?s streets are these days covered in artistic expression, in a prelude to the Kochi-Muziris Biennale in Kochi
Faizal Khan
Walking past the stuccoed roadside buildings in Fort Kochi seemed nothing more than a simple stroll until a week ago. Instead, these buildings carrying a commingling of Dutch, Portuguese and British architectural heritage now provoke passers-by with an array of images popping out of the walls?twisted images of a sea serpent, a phoenix, an eye monster, a brain monster, a helicopter and a boat. Welcome to the new street art in Kerala. A clutch of painters, descended on the town for the first-ever biennale in India, has added another form of expression to the artist?s canvas.
A culture-conscious state, Kerala is well-known for its political graffiti, painted in elaborate strokes of vernacular language play. But never before has anyone painted his or her thoughts on the walls, taking art out of a canvas or an exhibition hall. ?In Kerala, you always see political slogans and film posters on roadside walls,? says Harisha Chennangod, a Vadodara-based artist born in Kerala?s Kasaragod district. Chennangod, who painted an eco-conscious street art on the wall of The Killians Boutique Hotel close to the ferry in Fort Kochi, says it was his first street art. ?I am sure my work will add colour to the lives of the people who pass by it every day,? he says.
Street art, now a trend in Fort Kochi, happened not by design, but by desire. The form, used as a medium by artists around the world to provoke and protest, always found itself out of the official programmes of major international art events. However, at the first Kochi-Muziris Biennale, beginning December 12, street art has been given significant space.
The first of the street artworks for the biennale was done by Anpu Varkey, a Malayalee artist. ?The street art project was initiated through the theme of the biennale, but (is) more an improvisation based on the venue, the wall, the space and the things that happen around it,? says Varkey, a Delhi-based artist trained in Vadodara and London, who participated in a street art festival, Extension Khirkee, in Delhi, in March this year.
For example, when Chennangod got the nod for painting a spick-and-span wall of a boutique hotel in Fort Kochi, he decided to present the idea of urban proliferation in his work painted with minimalist strokes. Varkey?s own work at the Pepper House, a venue of the biennale by the seaside and a party venue after the show kicks off, depicts a dragon fish wielding a drink and a cigarette. ?This is also a comment on subculture and how subcultures are formed around drinking and smoking,? says Varkey, whose first solo exhibition was at a nightclub.
?In the Indian context, it is the first time that a biennale is giving space to street art,? says Riyas Komu, a popular Indian artist, who represented India at the 2007 Venice Biennale. In fact, both street art and graffiti (also part of street art) are not new to India. But graffiti was part of political campaigns and street art was limited to cultural paintings. In art shows abroad, street art had been kept out of the main draw until the Berlin Biennale early this year made graffiti part of the official programme.
Street art can be provocative, decorative, ironic, funny, thought provoking and simple. There is no end to what it can mean and contain. It relies heavily on the dimensions of the wall, its surface and its surroundings. When Swiss holidayers Maya Hottarek and Louis Werder were given a dirty wall near the Aspinall House venue in Fort Kochi for their street art, the young artists, who live in Piel City, about 150 km from Geneva, were happy. ?If the walls are dirty, the better, because the paintings will pop out better from a dirty wall,? says Werder, who was excited to see street art when they arrived in Fort Kochi a week ago and wasted no time in going to the biennale office to seek permission to paint. The couple has now painted a work showing the unity of the brain and heart and another about a brain monster picking up trash from a lake, the second one a critique on capitalism and its production of huge waste.
?Street art is art-meets-real people,? says Komu, who will be doing graffiti during the three-month long biennale. ?It?s straight on your face. That is its strength. That is why we decided to include street art in the Indian biennale,? adds Komu, who did graffiti on ?speaking up? at the Kohima Hornbill Festival last year.
Street art is catching on with artists and tourists arriving in Fort Kochi like wild fire. And the unique Indian character of the art has found an appeal among an attentive biennale crowd, locals and even tourists. ?It is typically Indian,? says Sabine Tevtloff, a graphic artist from Berlin, the mecca of graffiti, visiting Fort Kochi with her husband Steffen Gverges, about a building painted with hovering birds and waiting angels. ?Everything is represented in a unity. That is the interesting part of India.? For street art creators at the biennale, it will be a participation that will take a while to peel off. When Hottarek goes back to Switzerland, she says the street art she painted with her boyfriend in Fort Kochi will remain ?an art on my memory wall?. For Kerala and India, it will be the beginning of a trend.
The writer is a freelancer