The Wonderful World of Wall Paintings

Wall painting is an ancient art that goes back to thousands of years, when prehistoric humans started living in caves. The colours and techniques used by prehistoric humans were very different from the way contemporary humans use wall paintings. Yet across these thousands of years, in many ways, wall paintings show a continuity of ideas and functions. This is true across cultures, countries and continents.

This photo-essay on different kinds of wall paintings presents images from my travels in different continents.

WALL DECORATIONS

Wall paintings, that is using colours to make designs and illustrations on the walls, is one way of decorating our private and public places.

Some other ways of decorating the walls include -

Murals: Mural is a generic term, indicating wall decorations including wall paintings, but also designs made by applying stone or other materials. In the contemporary world, increasingly designs and art works are printed on canvas, plastic sheets or even paper and then fixed to the walls.

Mosaics are designs made by putting together small pieces of glass or ceramics, similar to the way pixels of different colours compose images on the computer screens.

ANCIENT WALL PAINTINGS

Prehistoric humans used wall paintings for different reasons such as to record events, as part of religious rites and as part of rites linked to hunting.

The image of a prehistoric wall painting shown below is from Chinhampere in Manica region in Mozambique, not far from the border from Zimbabwe. Ms. Mbuye Aghonda is a widow and is the guardian of the sacred paintings of Chinhampere. The paintings are made on an enormous and relatively smooth rock surface that overlooks a valley from the top of a hill.

To visit these wall paintings, you have to be accompanied by the sacred guardian. As you climb up the hill, first the sacred guardian will go to the paintings to pray and ask for their permission, before you can see them.

The paintings were made over different periods of time and show different wild animals and the hunters. Thus, probably they were part of the ancient hunting rituals. Now there is little wild life in Chinhampere. According to Mbuye, the paintings tell the story of persons who had come from some where across the border of the present-day Zimbabwe, and they had some discussions, after which part of the persons had returned back to their original village, while remaining had decided to settle near Chinhampere.

The ancient wall paintings of Chinhampere are part of a living tradition - every year, there is a village procession and festival, when people walk to the wall to pray and to celebrate.

WALL PAINTINGS IN TRADITIONAL SOCIETIES

In rural areas, and especially among tribal population groups, wall paintings continue to be part of people's lives. Here are two examples of traditional art.

The first image is from Koraput in Odisha (India) from the museum of tribal population groups. It shows the kind of figures used in traditional wall paintings in this area. These wall paintings have social and religious uses, as well as they are people's artistic expression. Even in cities in India, similar paintings can be made during festivals and marriages.

The second image is from Alua in Nampula region in the north of Mozambique, close to the Indian ocean. The village house-wall shows a contemporary scene with a truck bringing liquor or beer bottles, a bar or hotel, where people drink alcohol and the man with the knife illustrates the impact of alcohol drinking. Thus this wall painting is for public awareness, while the hut may belong to some public building or to a village leader or a pastor.

FRESCOES IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE

Frescoes are a special kind of wall painting made on fresh lime plaster, so that the painting becomes part of the building. This art of making frescoes developed especially in medieval Europe. Below you will find an example of frescoes from medieval houses from the city centre of Trento in north-east of Italy.

ACCEPTED CONTEMPORARY WALL PAINTINGS

Contemporary wall paintings can be broadly divided into those that are acceptable to the society and those that different societies usually criminalise. First let us look at different ways in which societies use wall-paintings as a device to attract attention and to tell people about the functions of a building.

The first image is from Guwahati (Assam) in the north-eastern part of India. It shows images painted on a Hindu temple wall. Such use of temple walls is very common in Asia and especially in India. It tells people that the building is a temple. It is also a time-saving device so that if you do not have enough time to go inside the temple to do proper prayers, you can do a hurried prayer, while passing in front of the sacred images.

The image below is from Kunming in Yunnan (China). I am not sure if it is a wall painting or if it is a painted canvas or plastic sheets fixed to the wall. It shows tribal dresses and costumes. As the contemporary world moves away from traditional societies to cities where people are more homogenised with western clothes and apartment houses, often cities create museums and images in public spaces to remind them about tribal dresses, songs, rites and customs. Usually this means simplifying the earlier complex societies into something that can be marketed for selling souvenirs and attracting tourists.

 

The next image is from the university area in Bologna (Italy), showing the shutters of a restaurant that have been painted to make publicity for the restaurant and to tell the passers-by about the kind of food available there.

 

The next image is once again from a rural area in Yunnan province of China and shows a nursery school. Often schools and children's wards in hospitals have bright and colourful images of happy and playing children, to increase their attractiveness and to make the small children forget the pain or the separation from their families!

The image below is from Amsterdam (Netherlands) showing an art shop for tourists. Here wall paintings are useful to attract customers.

 

The next two images are from the tiny medieval town of Dozza, near Bologna, in Italy. Every two years, Dozza invites some painters to come and use its houses as a canvas for making paintings. Over the decades, this has turned Dozza into an open air art gallery, where most houses have paintings on their walls. In a country full of quaint medieval towns with cobbled streets and castles with moats, the wall-paintings of Dozza help to give it a distinct image for attracting tourists.

The image below is one of my favourite paintings in Dozza, because it uses the windows of the house as the ears of the two gossipping neighbours.

Similar to Dozza, the seaside holiday town of Caorle near Venice (Italy) uses colours in two ways - for wall-paintings as shown in the image below, and also to paint the different houses in bright colours so that together they give a bright colourful look to the city. Once again, colours are used here to attract tourists.

Some time back, on TED video talks, I remember watching a video in which Mr. Edi Rama, the mayor of Tirana in Albania, tells of how he used colours to give optimism and self-confidence to his city. Do watch this video if you have not seen it.

The next image is from Vienna in Austria, showing a hotel that uses colour on its walls to give itself a distinct image and to attract people. As you walk in front of such a colourful building, it is natural to feel curious about it and to remember it.

All the above are different examples of how societies use colours and wall paintings as part of their information-providing, awareness raising and marketing.

GRAFFITI ART

Some times persons, especially young people, use wall paintings in street art to express their anger, to provoke and to protest. Often, such wall-paintings are done at night and in most countries, making such paintings is considered as a crime. However, sometimes, cities provide space to their young people where they can express themselves freely, without criminalising it.

Here are some examples of this rebellious art, also known as graffiti. The first two examples are from the university area in Goiania in Brazil (South America). Note the person with a cape on his/her head and the face covered by a handkerchief in the second image, an almost universal sign of protesting youth all over the world.

The next two examples are from Bologna (Italy) and are the works of a young artist called Ericailcané, who makes graffiti on abandoned buildings. Giant sized animals are a characteristic of his works. He expresses the alienation of youth in the contemporary society, usually seen as controlling (like the robotic hand turning the key in elephant's ass in the second image).

The next two images are also from Bologna, from the university area and these show expression of protest. The first one is about economic crisis and it has a message targeted at banks and governments, it says "We won't pay the bill for Your crisis".

The second image was made during Libyan war, probably by Libyan students (it is signed as "autonomous collective of students"), and shows Qaddafi with a no-entry sign and expresses solidarity with Arabs (it also has the student's website address, so even while protesting, students use it as a tool to get interested young people to their website).

The last image of this photo-essay is from the downtown in Nairobi (Kenya) and was clicked during last year (2012). It is a scathing satire, protesting against the political corruption and abuse of democracy.

CONCLUSIONS

Today as we move towards the digital world, perhaps our blog-walls can also be considered as wall-paintings - they are certainly used in different ways like the wall-paintings - to inform, to protest, to pray, to market or may be, just to express our sense of beauty. What ever be our goal, the wall paintings continue to be a potent and contemporary medium to share our message.

I hope that you liked this quick world-tour to the wall-paintings in different continents.

Personally, I feel that the graffiti made by the protesting youth, is also an art form. It is an important way to let people express themselves. I agree that if someone uses the wall of my house to give a protest message through graffiti, probably I would not be so happy about it. Still, I think that the cities can provide official spaces to graffiti makers. Apart from the protests, it also brings some vibrant colours and a human touch to our cities. What do you say?

***

Kenya diary - Part 2

(A post from 2012, edited & corrected in 2013)

Old city of Mombasa, 25 September 2012

If Nairobi looked like other modern cities with highways and skyscappers, old city of Mombasa is like Chandani chowk in Delhi, with its narrow winding streets bursting with life. Mombasa is full of mosques and women in black veils.

It is evening but it is not yet dark. After a long working day, coming back to the hotel, I had decided to go out and explore. Tiziana had warned me, “Be careful with your camera and come back before it gets dark.” 

In the old city, I find another Jain temple in one of the alleys of the old town.

It is made of white stone with exquisite designs. The temple also has a library with books and magazines in Gujarati.

As I come out in the street, I see two asian looking men speaking a language that I can vaguely understood. “Can you please tell me how to the go to the old port”, I ask them in English.

One of the men smiles and offers to accompany me towards the port. “It is not so easy to go there through these alleys, you will get lost. You should go out of the old town, and then from the main road, it will be easier to get there.”

We walk together in companionable silence. “Which language was it that you were speaking to to your friend?” I ask him.

“Kutchi, a language from Saurashtra in Gujarat”, he tells me.

He is Shailesh, and he was born in Mombasa. His grandfather had come here from India. They still have some uncles and aunts in India though he has never been there. “Yahi mera desh hai”, he says in Hindi and smiles.

His house is near the main road. When we reach there, he indicates the road going towards the old port and folds his hands in namaste. At the corner of the street, there is a big building of Bank of India and on the other side of the road, the old Portuguese fort.

It is becoming dark and I remember Tiziana’s warning, so I turn back to the hotel without going to the old port. It can wait for another day.

***
Old port of Mombasa, 27 September 2012

We are going back to Nairobi today but our flight is in the afternoon. With Tiziana, I go to visit the old port, where ships from Asia used to come and Africans for the slave trade were taken to different parts of the world. The water in the bay is supposed to be very deep, so ships can come close to the land.

The streets of the old port are like those of the old city, narrow and winding. In one old building near the stairs going down to the port, there is an nice old restaurant. We go there to drink some tamarind juice. It is well diluted but still it has the tangy sour taste of Tamarind. Unlike rasam, it has no spices, and people usually drink it with sugar. However, I drink it natural without adding anything else. I love it.

***
Kenyata tower, Nairobi, 28 September 2012

Our morning meeting is late so rather than sitting and waiting for an hour, I decide to walk to Kenyata tower and take a trip to the top. The ticket for foreigners is about 4 dollars and the lift takes you to 27th floor. From there you need to climb the stairs to the 30th floor.

I walk all around the circular terrace, trying to identify buildings and places.

"The Asians live there, in that rich part of Nairobi", the guide pointed to me. Is there a mild rebuke in his voice? I have heard that rebuke other times as well, about rich Asians who control all the commerce and zip around in fancy cars, keeping their distance from the local persons.

I think that the Asians know it, this feeling of local resentment against "foreigners" who take away their riches and do not mix with them. I am not sure if they have any political party here like the Italian Northern League or the Maharashtrian Nav Nirmal Sena, inciting locals against "outsiders".

"I am a tourist, and I have come only for a few days", I tell the guide to distance myself from the Kenyan Asians.

***
Naivasha, 29 September 2012

Today is my last day in Kenya. Tomorrow, I have an early morning flight back to Europe. Today we are going to spend the day doing some sightseeing in Naivasha in the Rift valley. The journey from Nairobi takes about 2 hours in the car and I love the descent from the mountains down to the savanna with wonderful views of the valley including an old mountain with a volcano crater from prehistoric times.

On our way to Oloiden lake, we stop at Shimba lodge on Naivasha lake for a coffee. While waiting for the coffee, I walk around. There are many ibis and deer in the park. Suddenly I see a white bird with black spots, wings flapping widly, getting ready to dive in the water to catch a fish. I aim the camera and click furiously, my heart palpitating. That bird is marvellous.

Afterwards, while sipping the coffee, I check the images to see if I have managed to catch that bird on my camera. Most of the images look blurred but there are a couple that look good.

Oloiden lake does not get many visiters. There are no tourist lodges or hotels here, only rural houses. Near the lake there is a community project that runs some boat trips for 4 thousand shillings ( about 425 dollars). Women are taking bath in the lake on one side and on the other side, a group of pink flamingos is in the water.

The boat trip is absolutely amazing. The dark green waters look cool, with geese, groups of flamingos and other water birds. Near the edges of the lake, there are lot of hyppos, submerged in water. In the forest around the lake, there are many zebras, giraffes and deer.

***
We go to Fisherman’s cove on Naivasha lake for lunch. While we wait for lunch, Wilson, our driver, points out the monkeys on the trees. They are small monkeys, black in colour, with a snow white fur on parts of their faces, backs and tails. These are called Colobus.

On some trees, they have fixed small wooden ledges with food for monkeys and birds. One of the monkeys finally comes down to one ledge to eat. However, when I try to go close to it, it runs away.

***
The day is not yet over. We go to Hells Gate safari park. This is the only safari park in Kenya where you can rent a bicycle and go around the park on it or even walk there. This is because there are no big cats (lions and jaguars) in this park and it is relatively safe. The most “dangerous” animal in the park are wild buffaloes. Park ticket is 25 dollars for foreigners.

It is full of zebras, giraffes, deer and warthogs. However the most beautiful thing about the park are its rugged rocks and craggy rocky hills. The panorama is wonderful.

The park has a wonderful narrow gorge called Hell’s gate. However, if it rains it is dangerous to go there because rain water from all the surrounding hills comes down thundering in the gorge, sweeping away everything. Some tourists have even died there after sudden rain falls.

Looking at the dark omnious clouds, we decide to forego the gorge trek, and go back to Nairobi.

***
The missed flight, 1 October 2012

Our flight was cancelled today because of some technical problems in the plane. We waited for more than 3 hours in the plane, waiting for the take-off. However, once Kenya airways decided that the flight was going to be cancelled, they were surprisingly efficient. We were quickly brought to a five star hotel in the city centre, not far from Kenyata tower. We have to stay here for one day and our flight will be tomorrow morning.

I have had cancelled flights many times but usually it takes hours for the airlines to organise everything and provide hotels. In comparison, the way Kenya airways has dealt with it is really great.

The view from the hotel room window is very nice but I have no desire to go out. I am spending the day working on my reports.

During lunch I had met a lady and a couple from Netherlands. The lady had been visiting some development projects in Kenya and some other countries. She looked a little anxious but has a beautiful smile. The man in the couple had also worked in a community development project in Kenya for six months a few years ago and now had come back with his wife to visit his old friends.

Our conversation was easy and friendly, probably because we are all linked to the “international development world” that goes from “developed” countries towards the “developing” countries.

For dinner also, I again sat with them, our conversation taking off from where it had been interrupted at lunch.

I feel comfrotable with them and this makes me feel guilty. Sitting in a five star hotel, with rooms that cost more than the monthly salaries of the people we are supposed to help, and going back to our comfortable worlds in Europe!

I did stay in realy simple and basic accomodation for all the visit and I did not choose to come here in this luxurious hotel, I tell myself, trying to assauge my guilt, while we eat our five star buffet.

***
You can also read part 1 of this diary.

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This post was originally written in 2012

Kenya Diary - Part 1

(A post from 2012, edited & corrected in 2013)

The journey, 19 January 2012 

It is not yet five o’clock when I reach the Bologna airport. The self check-in at a machine in the airport makes me feel like an old human model that has been long overtaken by newer and better functioning models. I fumble and curse till a young lady feels obliged to come and help me complete it.

The self check-in does not mean that I don’t have to queue to check-in the luggage and I am not sure if the airlines save any real time this way, except may be for persons who do not have luggage for check-in?

There are two young women standing in the queue behind me, bitching about their boss. Their conversation is a torrent of Italian cuss words, with plenty of assholes, dickheads and fucking-offs. Probably a second world war sailor would have been proud to have that vocabulary. It makes me smile and wake up. And I can feel a little pity towards their boss. Poor sod does not stand any chance, these two would eat him in one gulp, without ever burping!

***
Can someone help me, the guy in front of me asks the lady at the desk, checking the boarding passes. “Sorry, we don’t have anyone, you have to manage yourself”, the lady answers without looking up.

The guy looks young, in early twenties, and is probably south american. He has two bags, one on each shoulder, a ruck sack on his back, a pram with a baby, another bag hanging from the pram, a doll and some toys. We need to go down the stairs to a waiting bus and I find the young man standing there holding the baby and folding the pram, with bags scattered all around him. A couple of other passengers pass by without stopping. I ask him to give me the baby and a bag. It is a baby girl and she is still sleeping. He manages to pick up the remaining things and we reach the bus.

I go up the stairs to the plane behind him, still carrying the baby who smells of milk and is so soft in my arms. Her name is Noemi and they are going to Lima, Peru. She has woken up and she smiles at me and touches my cheek with her tiny hands. As I hand her to the guy in the plane, I feel a tiny tug of regret.

Is he her father? Did he have a fight with her mother and is taking away the baby with him? He seems so tender and careful with her, holding her in his arms and feeding her with a bottle. Or may be they are immigrants and need to work, so they don’t know where to leave the baby during the day. There are not enough day care centres in Bologna for the young babies of working mothers and anyway, are so costly and out of reach for immigrants. May be he is going to leave her with the grandparents in Peru till she grows up a little and can go to school? Why is the baby’s mother not with them? She did not get leave or they did not have enough money for the two air-tickets? I keep on thinking about them for some time.

Thousands of immigrants go through similar life choices, and probably hundreds of thousands of children grow up like that, without their parents. If I had a child like Noemi and I had to leave her like this, how would I feel? The idea makes me feel like crying.

***

The training, 22 September 2012

It is the third day of training and there are about 25 persons from different grassroots organisations from different parts of Kenya participating in it.

The first two days have gone very well. On the first day we had worked on different kinds of disabilities, the barriers they face and how communities can help in removing those barriers. On the second day, we had focused on working collectively through self-help groups and organisations of persons with disabilities. I am not showing them any slides or making any presentations except when we conclude the day and I want to go through the different things we had discussed together during the day. During the day we work through discussions and I stimulate them to share their ideas and experiences.

Carol, a psychologist teaching in a Nairobi university, is helping me to facilitate this training. She is wonderful. She listens to my ideas and then interprets them in her own ways, explaining them to the participants in Kshwahili. So I don’t need to worry about making cultural gaffes.

However, today it is not going on so well. We are supposed to work on advocacy and how to influence decision makers. I have started a discussion on how different groups in the society influence decision makers in different ways, and we had been talking about bribing, corruption and nepotism. I can sense a wariness in the group and discussions are punctuated by long periods of silences.

In the city centre, I had seen a very eloquent graffitti about corruption in the Kenyan politics. I am sure that people from all countries can relate to that graffitti, because corruption has no boundaries.

We talk about transparency and democracy in the organisations, and I can see tense faces all around me. Completing this session has been a real struggle and I feel frustrated.

Afterwards I speak to Tiziana about it. “What were you expecting?” she asks me, “You are touching on some raw nerves there. Corruption, nepotism is not just in politics, or among high ups. Though on a much smaller scale, it is also there in all organisations, even in grassroots organisations.”

***

Jain temple in Nairobi, 22 September 2012

Nairobi is full of Jain temples. On our way to Limuru road where are having the training, I pass in front of three big temples every day. During the lunch break, I decide to go and visit the one close to our training centre.

The temple has statues of Mahavir and different thirthankaars. Murali, the priest is from Rajasthan. He came here in 1988. Before him, his father was a priest here.

***

Wild life in Nairobi, 23 September 2012

We are free today and Tiziana takes me to the Nairobi national park. It is a wild life safari park inside the city, just 7 km from the city centre, close to the airport.

I buy a 50 dollar foreigner’s ticket for a safar in an old run down bus. The bus if mostly full of Kenyans, who have to pay about 4 dollars for this trip. Most foreigners do the safari in small jeeps, paying 200 dollars per person.

The Nairobi national park is incredible. It starts in the lush green forest and quickly goes down the hills towards a vast savanna with tall dry grass full of zebras, giraffes, baboons, wild buffaloes, impala and other varies of deer, white and grey rhinos, hyppos and lions.

Yet all around the savanna you can see the new houses and sky scappers of Nairobi, circling the national park. The pressure of growing urbanization, attrition between wildlife and people all around and poaching are big problems, the guide acknowledges sadly.

The three hour long safari trip is worth the money. We are lucky since we can see almost all the different animals during this trip, except for the male lion. To compensate for that, we find a lioness with her cubs, resting on a mound a little way away from the bus track.

There is also a zoo-safari park near the entrance to the national park. However, for 25 dollars ticket for the foreigners, I found it disappointing in comparison to the ride in the national park.

(End of part 01)

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This post was originally written in 2012