‘Shillong Street Art Fest projects women empowerment’

A Reporter

SHILLONG, May 17: The 1st edition of the Shillong Street Art Fest 2018 that started from March 8 on the occasion of International Women’s Day is soon going to conclude.

With its primary goal being to put Shillong on the global art scene and empower the youth through the medium of art, the street art festival has completed 14 murals so far painted by inkbrush by artists from across the state as well as from Pune, Bangalore, Solapur, Mumbai along with the local artists Zine, Stic, Robert and the CSAC group including the organiser and founder of this street art festival Roy Sanjib also known as Yantr.

“Our art style varies from a mixture of graffiti styles and murals signifying women empowerment through education, flora and fauna, traditional and modern day Khasi populace, the beloved iconic disco dancer and signature style biomechanical art,” Yantr told reporters at a conference on Thursday.

“As a street artist, I see the world and free space around me as an open gallery,” Sanjib said adding that Yantr is a Sanskrit word for machine and that his work revolves around the complexity of machines, organic forms and wildlife mixed together in his signature style and theme.

He further said that this is also a platform for the aspiring local artists to showcase their talent as well as learn from the seasoned artists who have travelled from various parts of the country to share their vision.

Born and raised in Assam and later moved to Delhi, Yantr said, “My father owned an auto garage which has a strong bearing on my art style and my childhood fascination with cars and machine parts visible in my works.”

Yantr is also one of the pioneers of the street art movement in India. The first street art festival was held at Khirkee extension Delhi and from there the movement was carried on by different artists to Mumbai, Pune, Kochi, Rishikesh to name a few.

Roy plans to continue his mission of providing a productive platform for the youth who may otherwise get involved in anti-social activities. It is hoped that the impact will be multi faceted and long lasting.

Here in Shillong it began when Roy discovered local artist Oliver Lyndem also known as Aka Owl and after seeing his immense potentials lying dormant because of the lack of exposure. Roy started this festival and gave a chance to Cant Stop Art and Craft, a city based artist group comprising Owl and others.

Meanwhile Oliver Lyndem, a resident of Malki who works at the Civil Hospital Shillong, said that with the coming of the street art fest he got many guidance and ideas from the various artists coming from outside the state to further improve and expose his art works.

Informing that his style of art is mostly outdoors water colour portraits, Lyndem said “I even came to know that we can use the shoe brush for painting.”