‘Street art gives freedom to artists, a wider canvas and gives those who have never had access an avenue to appreciate art’

“FREEDOM IS PLANTING THE IDEA OF PAINTING IN PUBLIC SPACES IN PEOPLE’S MINDS”

Co-founder, St+Art Foundation; co-founder, Guerrilla, an underground art and design studio based in Delhi; founder of Handpainted-Type; Hanif Kureshi, 33, is a street artist, saviour to traditional type artists, organiser of large-scale art interventions; currently attempting to change the visual landscape of Indian cities, enabling young artists to express public opinion artistically

There are two ways of looking at street painting. On the one hand, there’s graffiti, which seemingly stands for complete freedom. The artist refuses to look to the authorities for permissions and grabs what he believes is his freedom of expression. The other is street art that takes the legal route. This is something we have worked hard to achieve at the St+Art Foundation. We began with a door-to-door campaign in the urban villages of Delhi, asking for permission to paint their walls, followed by a three-to-four year progression, making requests to paper-pushers at various government offices.

What we have been attempting to achieve is a freedom meant not just for the artists, who stand to gain a wider canvas, but also for those who would be able to appreciate art they might never have had access to otherwise. It’s also about planting the idea of painting in public spaces in people’s minds. What we are used to seeing in the public space are typically advertisements, politically-driven messages or statues of political leaders. There hasn’t been enough art. The idea has not existed in this modern, contemporary form until now.

I was still a student of fine arts in Vadodara when I realised how art in our country has become institutionalised by the top artists, galleries, collectors. While that is not something we’re necessarily opposed to, it can be quite restrictive in many ways. Our country has a rich heritage of arts and crafts, and yet India’s contribution to the world of art is but barely one per cent. We believe that the only way to spread art and make it more popular is to take it to the streets and have more people participate.

My brush with street art began as an authority-defying graffiti artist. But considering you’re on the wrong side of the government, graffiti is quite short-lived. A graffiti artist is concerned with making a name for himself, but our aim is to spread the culture of art. The only way we could do that was to work with the people and with the government. The Delhi Urban Art Commission, which was a tough nut to crack in terms of allowing us permissions to begin with, is now planning to come up with an art masterplan for the city. It is a heartening step; one that makes us believe our efforts have been policy-changing. (As told to Moeena Halim)