Reverse graffiti......something we might be able to relate to!!!

An art revolution that is pretty new & innovative is one which is happening on the streets of San Francisco done by a group of local artists who aim to contribute their bit to the environment.

Called as 'reverse graffiti', the project uses guerrilla tactics of street-art on public walls, thus reversing the effects of pollution & actually turning the definition of graffiti on its head to produce wall art that is both unique & beautiful. It is a type of street art that instead of defacing public property, actually effaces it. Confused??

Well, to simplify it, the artists who practice this kind of art, actually remove filth/ dirt from public property like walls etc which acts like their canvas & in doing so, create imagery that is one of a kind. Thus the art created, is a mural that is both simple & expressive which goes to show that even without putting paint on a canvas, art can be expressed by removing something from it!!!!

The project was the brainchild of artist Paul Curtis, who together with other US artists created a clean, green 140 ft mural on the walls of San Francisco's Broadway tunnel by actually scrubbing away dirt & grime from the tunnel walls to reveal a stunning portrait of a flourishing forest of native plants, providing an inverse reflection of how the site may have looked 500 years ago. Since the tunnel sees a continuous rush of vehicles everyday, the soot & dirt caused by them had to be washed by high pressure water streams & eco-friendly cleaning agents to get it back to its former glory.

Maybe it is work such as this, that is ultimately needed to jolt people out of their complacency & make them realise that the world is a really dirty place & what is found outside, will in most certainty be found inside since we inhale the same thing!!!

'Detroit Industry', the finest example of Mexican muralist work in the US!!!

'Detroit Industry', a series of 27 panels depicting industry at the Ford motor company is considered one of the greatest works of Mexican fresco artist, Diego Rivera, husband to artist, Frida Kahlo (A movie was made on the artist's life with the same name starring actress Salma Hayek)

Unveiled in the year 1933, it is considered as a national treasure & consists of 2 main panels on the North & South walls depicting labourers going about their work in the Ford Motor company. The other panels depict other advances made in fields of science, such as medicine and new technology. The meaning of these images is complex, a view of industry that challenges ideas about its role in society and raises issues of class and politics.The entire mural as a whole encompasses the idea that all actions and ideas are one, be it related to science or religion.
The work was surrounded by a lot of controversy even before it was made since it dealt with the conflict between Rivera's Marxist philosophy and Detroit as a developing industrial centre. The work also included religious icons albiet in a different setting & this caused it to be condemned by both the Catholic & Episcopalian clergy. For example, one panel on the North wall displays a Christ-like child figure with what appears to be a halo over its head. Surrounding it are livestock, a doctor and nurse giving the child a vaccination, and three men working on a lab experiment. This is believed to be a parody on the birth of Christ, with the scientists as the three wise men, and offended members of the religious community.
 
The controversy was not a deterrent but instead generated widespread publicity & enabled the work to become world famous. Rivera actually depicted the workers in harmony with their machines and thus as highly productive people. This view reflects both Karl Marx's begrudging admiration for the high productivity of capitalism and the wish of Edsel Ford, who funded the project, to have the Ford motor plant depicted in a favorable light.

Although I might go on & on about the work, its magificence needs to be seen to be believed, not only because of its theme & message but also because of the determination & creativity of the artist to single-handedly complete his work!!!

Murals....a passion undertaken only by the gifted!!!

I have often wondered how Murals as an art form have come about & evolved!! especially since they can be time consuming & were initially done on a large surface with absolutely no drawing or format as reference.

Murals basically refer to an artwork painted directly on a wall, ceiling or a large permanent surface. Am sure for most of us, the first thing that comes to mind are the paintings on the walls of the Sistine Chapel by Michaelangelo. These were called 'Frescoes' by the Italians & the paint was directly applied on nearly dry plaster of walls or ceilings. The same kind of work can be seen in many heritage palaces in India & down south, closer to home at the Ajantha & Ellora caves...which need to be seen to be believed.

Towards the latter period however, these murals were painted using oil colours on canvas & then later transported to their destination & attached to the walls making the work a lot easier, but then the paintings were pretty dull looking & lost the lustre with age due to deterioration.

To make this same process a lot easier, in recent years digital prints have been produced & applied on walls. But since they are mass produced, they lack the originality of an art work & that's why, we might now be finding a gradual diminishing of these beautiful artworks & thus have to rely more & more on finding genuine antique pieces of work to show us how murals can completely transform our living spaces.