Wednesday, October 22, 2008

c-215 and Romanwyg





Stencil street art in India is not a regular sighting , so these captivating stencil illustrations on the gritty walls of Karol Bagh , Delhi come as a (ironically) breath of fresh air. The illustrations were done by famous albeit mysterious French artist c-215 and documented by Romanwyg.

In the words of photographer Romanwyg, "Sometimes threatened, usually uncomfortable with the large crowds that gathered for the spectacle of a couple of foreigners having strayed off the tourist trail somehow and ended up in their unimaginably poor district. These pieces were mainly for the children to see and enjoy, which hopefully you can see from the India Set, they did."

7 comments:

  1. thanks so much for leaving such a lovely comment on my blog :-)
    I love it to read your blog, because it shows another, different view of India :-)

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  2. very similar to Banksy's work- visible around islington/london (he's very well known!there)we in India have had a different tradition to street art, so this is a nice change!
    Kaveri

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  3. I like the execution but am not too sure about the subject itself. What's the statement?

    Street art for sake of street art? Nothing wrong with that but when you use a public wall as a canvas, you use it illegally - even in India - and you better be aiming to say something. Otherwise it's like 'selling' Rock Music.

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  4. Kaveri: I don't think they're very similar. They do use the same medium - stencils/aerosol. I think the similarity ends there. Banksy's work is in a whole other league. And yes , we do have a diff tradition of street art which is quite cool too !

    Rishi: My theory is that they like to document their visual perceptions of the local country by leaving portraits / illustrations of the local people. The great thing abt art is that it doesn't need to make a statement.

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  5. This is so different than Indian street art. and indeed, a refreshing change. Loved the use of monochromes. Thanks for sharing this!

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  6. [MC]: Agreed. 'art' doesn't need to be a statement. That's why I specifically talked of graffiti, whose art status is always in question.

    Banksy is revered since he uses the medium (and others) to unquestionably make art (and also an effortless statement). His art on canvas would not be the same.

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  7. brilliant work...bout time india sees a lot of this kinda work...the potential is mindless...keep up the great work...and looking forward to seeing more of your work in india and around..cheers

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