Love graffiti? This beginners workshop will introduce people to the art form and its techniques

DKRYPT’s Devanagari tag

Mumbai's art scene thrives in two distinct spheres. One flourishes within curated art galleries; while the other adorns the walls hidden in plain sight across the city in the form of street art and graffiti. A silver lining, perhaps, to Mumbai's currently cratered and dug-up roads is the unexpected pause that it offers commuters, transforming traffic jams into a fleeting art gallery experience. As city-based graffiti artist DKRYPT prepares to conduct a beginner's workshop next week, he gives us a sneak peek into the thriving and evolving community that is transforming the city's urban landscape.

The artist doodles on a collaborative wall

"Graffiti is a form of self-expression. When you take over a wall, you're leaving a mark in the city's visual map," the artist shares. We learn that the 27-year-old is making sure the mark he leaves is one that reaches every Mumbaikar. "Text forms a vital part of graffiti. Unfortunately, Devanagari is not represented well enough in a city with such rich cultural history. Martha Cooper, the renowned American graffiti photographer was recently in Mumbai, and in our conversations, she pointed out the surprising absence of the script on the walls. That was the turning point for me," he reveals.

DKRYPT

Contrary to popular belief, the artist reveals that graffiti is a disciplined and structured art form. The first step, he shares, is to choose a pseudonym for yourself. "The quickest form of graffiti is a tag. Having a short and catchy pseudonym helps you paint your tag on the go." The artist reveals that his own tag, dkrypt, is a play on the word decrypt, a nod to his educational background in programming. Once you have a tag that you think represents you in a nutshell, it's time to flip the spray cans open. Except it's not. "Many believe the next step is to simply doodle it on a wall. At the workshop, I will first teach participants the basics of blocking. Getting the basics down is vital and it gives you the artistic freedom to experiment," he notes.

Of the recent rise in interest for the art form among city residents, DKRYPT shares, "It has been a long time coming. People are starting to realise that there are ways to practise art beyond just picking up a paintbrush. A decade ago, you wouldn't expect a ceramic or pottery workshop to have massive turnouts. As for graffiti, the tactile experience of spray-painting on a wall is a fun shift from traditional mediums. A lot of us grew up seeing artworks pop up on walls in the backroads and bylanes of the city. In a way, it's also driven by nostalgia."

ON March 26; 1 pm onwards
AT Lil Gamby, Shop 2, 14th Road, Khar West.
LOG ON TO @lilgamby
COST Rs 999 onwards