Mumbai: With an aim to change not only the physical appearance of the street walls of Mumbai but also to spread social messages, a bunch of like-minded young students and artists have come forward to restore the city walls by painting beautiful illustrations with social messages and murals under the MAD (Murals and Doodles) project.
“Our mission is bilateral. On one hand, we aim to make art accessible to the common folk by putting it on display in public spaces like outside railway stations and on walls overseeing traffic. On the other, we aim to spread social messages, such as the ones about the environment, gender equality and AIDS awareness. This mission is a combination of social responsibility and the appreciation of art,” says Raashi Raghunath, Founder and Coordinator of MAD.
“It is painful to see the condition of walls in the city. We generally complain, cover our noses and tiptoe around the dirt. Hence we decided that it was time to stop turning a blind eye and actually take the effort to make a difference,” she adds.
And as they say actions speak louder than words, a bunch of five students gathered together and started the MAD initiative with an aim to bring about a change in the public perception. The students firmly believe that ‘if you paint a wall, people won’t deface something beautiful.’
The students select a wall that needs to be restored, seek permissions from authorities and make a Facebook page to scout for volunteers. Once the volunteers are arranged they scrub down the walls and create their magnificent arts.
They have worked on projects like the “First MAD Attempt”, which was about preserving nature, followed by spreading AIDS awareness on the wall of Mumbai District AIDS Control Society in Wadala and the ‘He for She’ campaign of Drishti 2016 (Cultural festival of Narsee Monjee College) with a strong message of gender equality.
In a recent collaboration with the Rotaract Club of Mithibai College, Project MAD has painted a few parts of Vile Parle to put a smile on the faces of tired commuters and even those just passing through the station. They are also working with Urja, a shelter for women in Dadar, by giving a complete makeover.
“AIDS through Art gives a chance to artists to add a permanent fixture on the Mumbai mural scene, and is part of public access to knowledge. We have completed three such projects, covering 19 (10x6ft.) panels,” says Shlomoh Samuel, another member of MAD.
‘Mumbai on the Wall’ was the tenth project of the team. They were assigned the herculean task of painting a 100 feet long wall and that too in an extremely dirty traffic corner. However, with the help of 30 artists, the wall at Lower Parel was painted with a beautiful mural and message.
Project MAD aims to reach out to students all over the city, via social media in order to broaden its scope and increase the number of walls it can reach out to.
“Our initiative hopes to work in any part of Bombay where it feels a wall can be saved. The beauty of using social messages to paint walls is that it attracts not only a bunch of very talented artists, but also people who want to give their voices to causes, but don’t know what to fight for just yet. MAD celebrates the creative energies of teenagers, in all forms,” says Aditi Monde, another member of MAD.
In order to work with the team, the students have to send a message to the page, with their names, contact information, the area they stay in, the reasons for joining MAD and which kind of volunteer they would like to be: an Artist or Manager.