I’ve always had a soft spot for Delhi’s painted public service messages. Whether they relate to the importance of handwashing or safe sex, they typically take the form of elaborate artworks painted onto walls by professional sign painters. Similarly, Delhi’s street art scene retains closer ties to government institutions than would ever happen elsewhere, but there’s a silver lining to this approach: namely, the way in which it’s given artists the chance to showcase their talent.
Take Tihar Jail, one of India’s largest prisons. St+art, the Delhi-based not-for-profit street art organisation, joined forces with prison authorities to daub lines from a poem onto its boundary walls, creating India’s longest mural – a 968-metre-long artwork referencing inmates’ feelings of isolation. Several of the street artists involved ran workshops for inmates, many of whom subsequently created their own murals on interior walls.
