A Satirical demand for time-bound Graffiti and Street Art:
Art on Public Walls and Streets in Bengaluru

H.A. Anil Kumar

To represent what one wants to but doesn’t wish to be identified as its author, due to the pleasure inherent in its anonymity, is being graffiti artist.-Anon

When the BBMP (City Corporation of Bengaluru) decided to get the city walls painted, half a decade ago, it created creative ripples through what came as pictures on the city walls, everywhere; as well as amongst the artist community.Interestingly, the then head of BBMP, Bharathlal Meena and other subservient authorities, by and large, statements meant that it was an ac(r)t involving more in avoiding ugly posters and other public visual nuisance through the process of wall painting, rather than an intention to beautify the city! The walls were painted to avoid defacing the space rather than project new visuality to the town. The idea of ‘covering’ something like a wall by ‘visibly beautifying’ in order to avoid filmy and political postures that turn grotesque after a while (be it the divine ones or the political, they all would meet at the point of becoming visual pollutants, from being kitsch) it was a novel attempt, both satirically as well as factually. Executed in stages, first in 2011, it’s the first cover-up operation that the city has seen.