Daku
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A profile
Georgina Maddox
February 5, 2015
His graffiti
One wouldn't normally find graffiti artists, who roam the streets at night with spray paint and a sneer at the establishment, at glamorous events such as the India Art Fair(2015), but Daku was there. He was masked and hooded and armed with a spray can-his typical outfit for public appearances. The 32-year-old, ironically, was requested to do a work for this edition of the art fair. He rightly, playfully called it "Commissioned Vandalism". He sprayed those two enormous, stencilled words in white on the asphalt road. "Commissioned Vandalism" repeated themselves over 100 metres. It was defiance at play, it was mischief at work. "My art is always critical and humorous," says Daku.
Was it also in some way a co-option? For, Daku, who started small with a few murals in Hauz Khas in 2011 and then spearheaded the exponential growth of the graffiti art movement in the Capital, saw his art sitting beside high art at one of the most talked-about commercial events. It needn't be co-option, it could just be acknowledgement of one's art. "Street music, performance and art are forms of cultural liberation in Delhi. Artists such as Daku are cultural ambassadors," says Yogesh Saini, an organiser of the Delhi Street Art movement. While Daku supports his art with a day job, one could not put a price on his work. It is for free.
