Here a brand new and wonderful mural by Axel Void painted in the streets of Chennai, India.
The new mural, titled வாழ்க்கை (Life) and painted in the main entrance of the Greenways Train Station in Chennai, is part of Axel Void’s Mediocre series picturing the portrait of Krishnaveni, an old lady that sleeps and lives right next to the wall.
Void describes the surroundings as follow “the station is a very live and particular place. It has the train tracks crossing over a very polluted and dirty canal, a corner where alcoholics often hang out; a small temple directly on the side of the river and vendors along the street that sell food and flowers. It also conforms the entrance to one of the slums, in which the wall is the first thing they see when they come out to the street. Even though this may seem like an ominous scenario, it is quite the opposite. In the week that I’ve been working here, I’ve learned that it’s a very charming and warm space, where every person has clear and honest intentions.”
The mural is, according to the artist, not about poverty, but “about people, and how we all share space and time. How we interact and coexist with each other. From the homeless, to people waiting to catch their train, to the taxi drivers that wait there for endless hours, to the kids coming and going to school on their way to catch the train to go back to their houses, to Krishnaveni, who passes her days sitting in the same corner and watching life pass by, apparently oblivious on the outside but quite present inside. It seems like they are all watching time pass through a different perspective, with on common denominator, which is Greenways Station.”
Certainly a beautiful and powerful image.
Author: Fran
Founder and editor of Urbanite. Street Art lover who after the finishing her MA thesis on the Mexican and Norwegian muralist movement in the 1920-50s, developed a fascination for street art and graffiti that eventually led to collaborations with different art blogs, including the creation of this one.
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