Hello friends,
Have you ever come across a piece of art and fell in love with it? Well, even I did!
Writing about something distinctive has always been close to my heart (after my passion for travelling) and I couldn’t resist writing this post about the mind-blowing street art that I have been witnessing in and around Mumbai in the past few years.
Although it may not be the topic of interest for many, one cannot escape the reality that art is the ultimate expression of one’s emotion. Using it to draw the attention of many, especially through everyday experiences, has given it a subtle uniqueness over active participation.
Apart from refabricating one’s outlook, street art has an unrealized potential to upskill our brain with the raised consciousness. No doubt that it allows the mind to connect with thousands of thoughts that it had experienced earlier. Having seen street art grow in Mumbai, I must say that there is a swift change in voicing out opinion by Mumbaikars.
While graffiti started back in the 1960s around New York, it is continuously reported to be illegal word-based art. Street art on contrarily is an image-based formal artistic expression that seeks legal protection like copyright. The political tweets on the public wall and various advertisements along the railway tracks (at least in the past) have influenced its advancement in multiple Indian cities. The recent progress in street art (and graffiti both) has bought Mumbai (and of course India) closer to the mainstream and it has been employed for brightening city streets and bringing communities closer.
A very well-known Mumbai based street artist Tyler (famously known as India’s Banksy) believes that “Street art is rebellious by its very nature. And it is the job of art to show a mirror to society.” While many artists keep the street art easy to grasp, intentionally; few artworks have no hidden message or it is just for expressing the artist’s feelings while some are humorous arts tackling the political or social issues.
The artistic capital of India, Mumbai is blooming with such art (especially murals) at multiple locations like Bandra, Fort, Marine lines, Dharavi, Mahim, Worli and many more. Most of the art is to pay tribute to the topics like Bollywood including famous movie scenes, dialogues or characters themselves (remember Mogambo from Mr India?) or everyday events of Mumbai like Dabbawalas, fishmarket, police, etc. or sensitive topics like raising a girl child, saving trees and many more. The recent topics are the awareness about covid-19 safety, save the Earth, etc. Many of the street art projects are currently lead by ‘Start India foundation (St+art India) in collaboration with Asian paints are now being supported by Bhrihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). Mumbai-the art capital of India is leading the street art in Asia and street artists are routinely using the city’s old buildings, slums, broken walls, gullis, and railway stations as a canvas with permissions from local authorities.
I am certainly amazed by the increase in Instagram posts featuring Mumbai’s street art. The wall art is routinely seen in the profile pictures on social media. Remember the famous angel wings on street walls? Who doesn’t like to click with wings? But, did you know that the Global Angel Wings Project created by Collete Miller (2012) was initiated to remind humanity that we are angels of this earth? Certainly, such art has a lot to tell than just giving you a display picture.
If one lives in Mumbai or has been to Mumbai, he/she can not agree more that the city’s vibrant street art can not go unnoticed and is very much related to our everyday life. I sincerely hope to see many such projects make great progress in the coming years to make our Mumbai clean, green, and surely more attractive than ever (with the support of our very own BMC). A good friend of mine (Harshul Narvekar) has beautifully captured a few of these wall art around the Mumbai/ Navi Mumbai area during his cycling tours around the city which are included in this post. Hope you guys will enjoy reading this post as much as I loved writing it.
Have you ever come across such wall art in your area? Have you seen street art grow and become the way to communicate with people? Have you visited Mumbai yet? Do let me know any such art that has captured your mind and brightened your day.
Happy reading!
and very well captured pictures 
. Thanks for sharing with us.
