Veteran graffiti writer Jaba came to Mumbai this week and crafted an abstract wall piece at Cool Chef Cafe, Worli on Tuesday, January 03. Jaba has been a graffiti artist for over 20 years now and he is known for his futuristic characters and wildstyle graffiti (check out his work here).
Jaba starts sketching the wall piece
Jaba begins by sketching his design on the wall with the colours he will be using for this particular piece. Each section has to be filled in with paint after he sketches it out. This part is crucial because it defines the style and the scope of the piece.
Setting up
Jaba lives in Singapore with his fiance Sophia Ong, who assisted him on this piece. Back home he is a lecturer at Nanyang Polytechnic, while dabbling in freelance graffiti and art projects.
The wall @ Cool Chef Cafe, Worli
Jaba painted the main exterior wall of Cool Chef Cafe and it attracted quite a lot of attention from the locals of Worli village. The locals didn’t distract him, as he was the picture of concentration.
Jaba expands the piece while Ong begins to fill in the sketches.
The art work started to take shape and the cubic, wildstyle influence that Jaba is famous for, begins to impose itself on the wall. One of the challenges they faced was selecting the appropriate colours that would be easy to distinguish on the bright red wall.
Jaba and Ong plot their next move.
Planning a piece for a certain wall doesn’t take time for a seasoned graffiti writer and Jaba was no different. After a five-minute inspection of the wall, he got the spray paint within an hour, and started work immediately.
Working together with great efficiency
Bystanders could tell that Jaba and Ong were a very effective team who had been at this for years. The enthusiastic couple are going to get married in Singapore next month.
Welcome to India
Things got a little more complicated when a cement truck decided to show up at a most inopportune moment and make the task even harder. Once again, Jaba was barely phased by this as he got locked back into focus within seconds after the enforced break.
Jaba applies some touches to the sketch before he outlines the whole piece
After sketching and filling in the colours, Jaba then has to take black spray paint and outline the entire piece in order to give it definition. Like any good graffiti artist, he doesn’t miss the opportunity to embellish the piece with more details before he gets the black paint out.
Some interested spectators
People watched Jaba paint all day and the audience was quite diverse. Whether they were just passing by or standing around for a few minutes, the wall grabbed everyone’s attention.
The finished piece
This was a classic example of graffiti writing, where Jaba has tagged the wall with his name. If you look closely you will see the figures are shapes that resemble ‘JABA’. Every graffiti writer tags a wall with his name and he does it differently every time. No two tags are the same, although they can use similar styles.
This piece is the end of Jaba’s second tour of India, and he headed back to Singapore immediately after he finished painting. He left the country with new memories and new friends with a vow. “Next time, I’m really going to think about what I will put on this wall, and I will definitely come back and paint it again.”
Photos by Naman Saraiya
Twitter
Facebook