First impressions
Creativity and Collaboration

Sense of collaboration spurs the first mural of the Graphic Travelogues project in Lodhi Art District.

By Faizal Khan

A group of workers donning helmets and reflective vests is busy laying cables by the roadside for a new broadband line for the neighbourhood. Some boisterous students are walking past for their first day in college in two years. Above, a few branches of a peepal tree are sneaking into an arched gateway as if to join the curious onlookers below.

As the sun sets on the Lodhi Arts District in Delhi, a sense of collaboration is palpable on the first day of the Graphic Travelogues Murals project. For Aashti Miller and Greta von Richthofen - the two artists chosen to helm the project in the Lodhi Arts District in Delhi and the Kannagi Nagar Arts District in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, during February-March - the atmosphere is already in tandem with their aim of working together.

"The conversation with the residents as well as passersby is as important as the mural itself," says von Richthofen, who is excited on her first visit to India. Agrees Miller: "The interaction with the people is the fun part of the project. The mural belongs to the people and the city." It is interesting how the collaboration between the two artists -- the signature theme of the GT #Murals project - is spurring creativity as much as their conversation with the public.

An older adult driving a motorcycle briefly stopped in front of the upcoming mural so that he could point out the work to his grandson. "This is a balloon, this is a fish," a student returning home from her classes whispered in her mother's ears. "Do you people work on themed paintings?" shouted a man out of his car window. 

The creativity around the project is matched only by the curiosity on the ground. "Today was my first day in college in two years. I was walking back home when I saw a lift truck near a newly-painted wall," says Ritika Mehra, a college student who lives a block away from the GT #Murals site. "I want to see what is coming up. Looking at murals is my full-time job," she jokes.

A day ahead of the project launch, employees of St+art India Foundation, which is the project partner, worked for hours to scrub away remains of a previous mural first made eight years ago. They followed it up by adding a layer of base paint for the mural in continental green. As the sun went down on the first day of the project, the two artists perched a laptop and projector on top of large paint cans and projected a digital sketch of the mural onto the wall to create an outline. 

The artists are undaunted by the grand scale of their work which will measure 100 feet wide and 35 feet tall when finished. "This is only the beginning," says von Richthofen, standing in front of the mural outline and surrounded by paint trays, bins and other paraphernalia required for the project.