Although certainly and notably destructive at times, graffiti has equal power to embolden and beautify a city, rather than smear or disfigure it. Such inherently colorful work doesn’t always have to be a rushed tag for unsavory reasons. In truth, graffiti isn’t all that far off from mural work in nature or, in graffiti artist Daku’s latest piece, bounces closer to a typographic art installation.
“In truth, graffiti isn’t all that far off from mural work.”
You’ll find the innovative work in the Lodhi Colony of New Delhi. In “Time Changes Everything,” the letters connect perpendicularly to a building’s facade to face the sidewalk, which allows a sundial quality to evolve the typographic graffiti throughout the day. It’s a pretty intriguing use of shadows—and the graffiti medium.
Little is known about Daku, however, though the artist’s work is appreciated as social commentary street art. It’s hard to dispute it’s value, even though the pseudonym itself, “daku” means bandit in Hindi.
The piece ingeniously visualizes the concept of time by playing with letters and shadows. The oldest forms of measuring time were sundials used by the Egyptians as early as 1500 BC, and this piece takes that concept to a whole new level.
“The piece ingeniously visualizes the concept of time by playing with letters and shadows.”
By mounting several words on the wall which cast an evolving shadow through the day, the artist speaks metaphorically of all the things in life which change over time. The words highlighted in this piece not only speak of the nature of our lives but also the ephemeral nature of street art – which is constantly changing.
Every day, throughout the year, this piece will come alive between 09:30 AM to 14:30 PM, after which it will disappear with the fading Sun. The best time to view the wall is at 12:00 (noon) when the shadow falls directly on the wall making the words clearly legible. As time passes, the slant of the shadow increases making them slowly fade away as the sun sets.
