Menu
The New Contemporary Art Magazine

Olek Brightens an Indian Homeless Shelter with Crochet for St+art Delhi

While some artists view yarn bombing as purely decorative, Olek (HF Vol. 29) often swathes objects in crochet to draw attention to important socio-political issues. Known for the outspoken messages in her large-scale, colorful work, she was recently invited to create a piece in New Delhi, India for the St+art Delhi street art festival. For her canvas, Olek chose one of the local homeless shelters called “Raine Basera,” which provide people with temporary lodging overnight. With the help of legions of volunteers and donations from Indian fashion labels, Olek beautified the shelter with bright yellow, purple, and red crocheted fabrics that evoke India's famously vibrant textiles. Though it's visually alluring, the piece ultimately imparts a sobering message about the reality of poverty in New Delhi — and many major cities around the world.

While some artists view yarn bombing as purely decorative, Olek (HF Vol. 29) often swathes objects in crochet to draw attention to important socio-political issues. Known for the outspoken messages in her large-scale, colorful work, she was recently invited to create a piece in New Delhi, India for the St+art Delhi street art festival. For her canvas, Olek chose one of the local homeless shelters called “Raine Basera,” which provide people with temporary lodging overnight. With the help of legions of volunteers and donations from Indian fashion labels, Olek beautified the shelter with bright yellow, purple, and red crocheted fabrics that evoke India’s famously vibrant textiles. Though it’s visually alluring, the piece ultimately imparts a sobering message about the reality of poverty in New Delhi — and many major cities around the world.

Photos courtesy of Pranav Mehta.

 

 

Meta
Share
Facebook
Reddit
Pinterest
Email
Related Articles
For many artists, painter's tape is a handy tool used to draw perfect shapes and outlines that are revealed when the tape is removed- but for Berlin based artist collective known as "Tape Over", the tape sticks. Using tape as their preferred drawing material, founding artists Lamia Michna and Robert Konig began first experimenting with tape art in 2011 at Berlin’s electro night club scene, eventually moving their work onto large-scale installations all over the world. Though much of their work is focused on indoor and outdoor murals, they prefer to be called tape muralists over street artists.
The Yok & Sheryo are a New York-based artist duo whose busy, illustrative murals can be found on walls world-over, from Hong Kong to Miami. Most recently spotted at the street art festival Pow! Wow! Taiwan (see our coverage here), the frequent collaborators have developed a signature style that contrasts an austere palette of red, white and black with jovial, surreal imagery — sentient hot dogs on a tropical vacation, a surfing Satan that seems as friendly as Santa Claus, et cetera. The artists' frequently-used motifs, like pizza and palm trees, reference pulp illustrations, skateboard graphics and their unabashed affinity for kitsch. They bring together a frenzied array of imagery that speaks to those who grew up admiring '80s and '90s skateboarding and surfing culture.
Growing up in a small town in Poland, graffiti wasn't a big part of artist Natalia Rak's childhood. But now that she is painting on walls, she's come to appreciate it. First featured on our blog here, her murals are instantly recognizable for their intensely vibrant color palette.
Swedish painter Alessandro Battisti, better known as "ETNIK" began his journey as an artist over twenty years ago, beginning with painting his large-scale murals in suburban areas and anywhere else he could find. This was how he came to discover cities, and the concept of "city" has long been at the core of his art. First featured on our blog here, ETNIK's work today is a colorful and geometric variety of murals, paintings, and sculpture inspired by the city environment and underground culture of his current home in Florence. He describes his abstract cityscapes as a "wild style", and creating art is his way of understanding the world.

Subscribe to the Hi-Fructose Mailing List