The Pepsi Dub Station (check out the lineup here) is going to come alive with colour at this year’s Bacardi NH7 Weekender. This stage promises much to be excited about not just because of the performers but also because of a team of graffiti artists who have brought the venue alive. The letters and characters that cover the walls are in fact the work of five artists, who have been working around the clock to create this distinct urban aesthetic for the Pepsi Dub Station.
We spoke to some of the artists about their art and what they have in store for the Pepsi Dub Station.
Roy Sanjib works as an art director for an ad agency but the art in his life is not exclusively related to advertising. Sanjib’s graffiti talent is the culmination of 10 years in graphic arts and it shows simply in the detail of his work and the extent of ability to visualize complex abstract images. For the Pepsi Dub Station, Roy has a theme in mind.
Cars and other machinery fascinate me. I want to make drawings based on this. I use acrylic paints, spray paint cans and markers to make my drawings. I call this form of art ‘High Abstraction’. I have more drawings in mind which I don’t want to tell you about right now.
Roy Sanjib and his High Abstraction car
The next intrepid artist we met was Zine. Based in New Delhi and originally from Mizoram, Zine has been tagging walls all over the country. Zine is a traditional graffiti writer (this means he writes letters on the walls in various street graffiti styles) and he has added his own personal signature to the walls of the Pepsi Dub Station. He told us what he felt about the experience of writing at a festival
This is a good experience with lots of artists. Hopefully, I’ll get to meet some of the performers as well. Plus, I get to paint in Pune. It’s definitely not about the money. We get lots of artistic license. It is really exciting.
Zine spells it out
The last artist we caught up with was Samita “Sam Sam” Chatterjee. This Kolkata girl moved to New Delhi where she claims the street art scene is really alive. She says that her inspiration for work is entirely down to her doing whatever she wants. Chatterjee was quite shy when it came to speaking with us but her work is on the walls and perhaps that’s all anybody needs to know.
Samita's Robot Crew
Graffiti is still in its infancy in India, but if its impact is recognized and slowly emulated, a rich culture of street art will flourish on the vast canvasses of urban India. For the Pepsi Dub Station, some large pieces are still unfinished but when the paint dries on Friday, works of art will live in memories of happy dubsteppers forever.
Photos by Naman Saraiya
Twitter
Facebook