Graffiti as an art form is still largely unexplored in India and to encourage people to try out this medium of art, especially women, graffiti agency Wicked Broz in collaboration with the Military Road Residents Welfare Association is organizing a women-only street art festival starting from March 25 in Marol, Andheri.

The intent behind a women-only festival, as explained by Avantika Mathur, a graffiti artist, is “This is an all-women festival because there is no space for just women to come and do something together. We’re in such an era of women’s empowerment but I think even in terms of art and graffiti it’s a very male-dominated space, something like this is such a good opportunity for the female artists to come together, and it’s not just graffiti, we also have an exhibition of female artists, hip hop dancers, and rappers, so it’s a very empowering event because in the creative field we need this kind of bond where we are there for each other.”

Avantika goes on to say that even now there are very few women in the graffiti scene in India, and that she herself started only four or five years ago.  “It is a very comfortable platform, where only women are taking part, you have a space where you can talk about anything and art is such a good emotion-expressing medium. We are also educating the people because there are workshops, we are telling them to join, learn through the art and then talk to artists. Also having only women makes it comfortable for those who aren’t comfortable to feel safe in this space. Usually, in such festivals, there’ll be only one or two women but here since it is all women I have so many artists approaching to be a part of it.”

She says that painting in a studio and painting outside are two completely different things. Inside the studio, one is limited to only the canvas but graffiti allows for a larger working area, as well as a larger audience. When she started there were a lot of uncertainties and she had quite a few doubts about being able to complete the work. But these challenges that come with doing street art, Avantika says, make the entire process and the artwork more thrilling, and the anticipation of completing a piece is a different adrenaline rush altogether.

“There are a lot of barriers as to why there aren’t a lot of women but we are trying to break through those with this festival, we are sorting you out with permissions and giving you everything like paint etc, you just have to bring your creativity and do your thing. Which takes away so many concerns women might have and it becomes more approachable for them,” Avantika says.

These artworks on the street aren’t just an outlet for the artists or just to brighten up the street. There is a passion behind these pieces, a message the artist wants to convey, a cause they want to advocate and an issue that needs to be talked about. According to Avantika, people who want to bring about a change through their art should become graffiti artist. There has to be a meaning behind why you chose to do this on the street instead of a canvas in the studio.

Avantika adds, “If I’m making something I’m doing it for a reason, my artworks are for a cause. I do it for people to believe in and empower themselves. I believe in women’s empowerment and all my artwork revolves around it because I believe the best way of empowerment is to be the best version of you, that is the most empowering feeling. What you can do to help yourself is to figure out who you are and be the best version of it and that’s what I promote through my artwork. How am I helping people if I sell my artwork to one person who has like eight people visit them. Through graffiti, I can have this conversation with many people, it’s like having a public exhibition.”

She goes on to say that these artworks become a landmark of the area. Where only ruined walls used to be on a street, after painting on them, Avantika says, proper streetlights were installed. People need a place to stop sometimes and these artworks become those places. People gather around to just chill and a hangout spot is formed. People start referring to those previously ruined crumbling walls as places, they’re given out as addresses to meet up, ‘wo jo Lodhi colony mein photograph wala painting hai udhar mil’ are sentences that can be heard.

People generally don’t discuss art and there’s this notion that art is for the rich and one must go to galleries to truly experience it. Street art is the best way to take the art to everyone, be it rich or poor, educated or not. “What car you drive doesn’t really matter. What matters is what you think about when you look at these pieces, they have no caste no creed and no colour. And that is why getting out on the street is the best way because the street is also like that; it doesn’t differentiate between class and creed,” is what Avantika feels.

Conveying more about the intent behind the women-only festival, Avantika says, “I think the graffiti form will be like a revolution for women, this festival itself can be a revolution of women expressing themselves and talking about social issues in creative ways.”