Hanif Kureshi (12 October 1982 – 22 September 2024), also known by the graffiti name Daku, was an Indian artist, designer, and advertising professional. Kureshi was a pioneering figure in India's street art movement, helping to transform urban spaces into public canvases and bringing art out of the museums to the wider public in India.
Kureshi's early childhood experiences with hand-painted signage led to his lifelong interest in typography and street art, with his first apprenticeship with local painters creating hand-painted license plates. He studied art at Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, later pursuing a career in advertising. He started working as a graffiti artist in the late 2000s, moving on to large-scale street art and murals, often collaborating with artists from around the world.
After seeing the impact of modern digital design and printing replacing the local artists of his youth, he started the HandpaintedType project as an attempt to preserve typographic practices and styles unique to Indian street sign painters and provide them with an income stream. Kureshi went on to co-found the St+art India Foundation to help popularise street art throughout the country, with notable work produced in the Lodhi Art District in Delhi, the Sassoon Dock art project in Mumbai, and the Bangalore Metro.
Early life
Kureshi was born on 12 October 1982[1] in Palitana, a town in the Bhavnagar district of Gujarat.[2] He first began working with street painters during his school vacations.[3] He apprenticed with local painters who specialised in hand-painted licence plates.[4] Encouraged by his father, he decided to become an artist himself,[3] graduating with a degree in arts from the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda.[5]
Career
Kureshi began his professional career in advertising, starting with the advertising agencyOgilvy & Mather in 2003 where he went on to become a senior art director.[6] He later moved to the advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy in 2008 where he became a senior creative. That same year, he first began working as a graffiti artist on the streets[7] using the pseudonymDaku (transl.Bandit).[5] In 2011, while still at the agency,[4] Kureshi started the HandpaintedType project[8] as an attempt to preserve the typographic practices and styles of Indian street sign painters for future generations before they disappeared.[note 1]
HandpaintedType documented the typefaces of at least 18 roadside painters in India, recording brief biographical data and producing at least two short documentary videos.[9] Kureshi released an initial free, digitised street font to the public based on the project, followed by a later commercial release,[10] whose proceeds were intended to provide a source of revenue for the traditional sign painters being displaced by digital printing.[11] In 2011, Kureshi made several presentations to professional organisations about the data they collected, including one at the Typography Day conference in Ahmedabad followed by a larger, formal presentation at the 2011 ATypI typography conference in Reykjavík.[10] Following his stint at Wieden+Kennedy, Kureshi left the advertising world to focus on street art and sign painting.[2]
St+art India Foundation
In 2013, Kureshi co-founded the St+art India Foundation[12] along with Giulia Ambrogi, Thanish Thomas, Akshat Nauriyal, and investor Rajeev Bahl.[7] The foundation, whose name is a combination of "Street" and "Art" (pronounced "Start"),[4] is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to promoting street art across India. The foundation worked on transforming neighbourhoods through large-scale murals and street art installations.[13] One of the foundation's notable projects was the Lodhi Art District in Delhi, one of India's first open-air public art districts, which features over 60 murals created by national and international artists.[14] The foundation went on to start seven art districts across the country; four are currently still active: Lodhi, Mahim in Mumbai, Nochi in Chennai, and Ukkadam in Coimbatore.[14]
Artistic contributions
Kureshi's art blended traditional Indian aesthetics with modern public art practices.[14] His murals often incorporated elements of Indian culture, including typographic works that played with regional languages and local traditions. His large-scale public art pieces can be seen in various Indian cities, including murals at the Bangalore Metro, the Sassoon Dock art project and the Churchgate railway station in Mumbai, and in the streets of Panaji in Goa.[1] Some of his works were noted as a commentary on the socio-economic situation in the country including increasing wealth inequality, urban apathy, and an emerging water crisis in the country's major cities.[5] His early works included stencilled art with provocative messages, often involving political activism.[15] He addressed topics like moral and cultural policing[16] and urban issues involving garbage management.[note 2]
He collaborated with Crew 156, their founding member JonOne, and other artists such as Bond and Zine.[17] His earlier street work was considered more cynical and pseudonymous with him often using stealth to render graffiti and other street messaging, an approach that he moved away from in the latter part of his career.[17] This had some calling him the "Banksy of India" referring to the pseudonymous English graffiti artist Banksy.[18] In an interview with the BBC as Daku, he stated that he respected Banksy's work but did not find comparisons "flattering" as he felt his work was "separate" and had "a very Indian aesthetic".[19]
In some of his art, particularly his time series, Kureshi experiments with light and shadow.[7] In Time Changes Everything (2015–2016), a typographical work created under his Daku pseudonym in Lodhi Colony, New Delhi, Kureshi plays with the notions of light, shadows, and time, emphasising the ever-changing and short-lived quality of both human life and street art. In the outdoor installation, a series of more than 70 words appears in black on three, forward-facing wall partitions on a building painted white. There is no colour, and the words are not painted with ink.[17] The design first appears visible at around 9:30a.m. when sunlight begins casting shadows through horizontal, parallel sheets of metal facing down.[17] At that time, various words start appearing on the wall and become most vivid at noon time.[17] The words describe "time, motion and change", ideas Kureshi returns to in his art. He used SketchUp 3D modelling software and Google Maps to help plan the piece, estimating the Sun's movement to get the shadows just right so that people passing by could read the words.[20] Due to the orientation of the wall, from 15 May to 15 August the wall appears completely blank.[17]
Commercial work
In 2019, Kureshi was creative director of two art projects, a mural project illustrated by Dattaraj M. Naik, and an embroidery installation by Johnson Kshetrimayum, both for the first Uniqlo store in India, located at the Ambience Mall, Vasant Kunj in New Delhi.[21]
Later exhibitions and death
Kureshi's work was exhibited at international art events and venues, including the London Design Biennale, Venice Biennale, Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Triannale Design Museum in Milan.[22] In India, his work appeared at the India Art, Architecture and Design Biennale at the Red Fort in Delhi.[23] In June 2024, he held a solo exhibition at Wildstyle Gallery in Sweden;[24] by that time, he had dealt with lung cancer for a year. He died with the disease in Goa on 22 September 2024 aged 41,[14] leaving behind a wife Rutva and 5 year old son Bramha.[5]
India Art, Architecture and Design Biennale, Red Fort, Delhi
Cycle of Time (2023)[5]
Notes
↑Kureshi 2011: "HandpaintedType is a project that is dedicated to preserving the typographic practice of street painters around India. These painters, with the advent of local DTP (Desktop Publishers) shops, are rapidly going out of business with many of them switching to the quicker, cheaper but uglier vinyls. Many painters have given up their practice altogether. The project involves documenting the typefaces of road side painters across India and digitizing it so that it serves as a resource for present and future generation...I felt that I should do something...before painters disappear from streets. I also thought it important to preserve this art form for future generations to understand and hopefully, appreciate."
↑See Khurana, Sanchita (2024). "Cast(e)ing a Subversive 'Sensible': The Symbology of Cultural Resistance in Dalit Writing". In Tamanna Priya (Ed.) and Amrit Mishra (Ed.) Dalits and Dalit Lives in 21st Century India: Towards a New Politics. Vernon Press. pp. 12-13. ISBN9798881900366. OCLC1455329869.
References
12Shaikh, Sadaf (24 September 2024). "Remembering Hanif Kureshi, the artist who breathed life into Mumbai's streets". Vogue India. Archived from the original on 24 September 2024. Retrieved 25 September 2024.
12Ojha, Abhilasha (26 September 2024). "Hanif Kureshi - Bringing Art Out into the Open". Archived from the original on 27 September 2024. Retrieved 30 September 2024.
12Reynolds, Dan (September 25, 2011). "ATypI 2011 Reykjavík". I Love Typography. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
↑Haridasani, Alisha (18 February 2016). "How Delhi’s streets are being transformed one spray can at a time". CNN. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
↑"St+art India Foundation". Festivals From India. Retrieved 16 April 2025.
↑"How artwork gave Lodhi Colony fresh lease of life". The Indian Express. 3 July 2022. Archived from the original on 26 September 2024. Retrieved 26 September 2024.
1234"Painting on the wall: Street artist Hanif Kureshi remembered for making art democratic". The Hindu. 24 September 2024. ISSN0971-751X. Archived from the original on 25 September 2024. Retrieved 25 September 2024.
↑Nair, Roshni. "Street art breathes a new life into Mumbai". DNA India. Archived from the original on 16 December 2018. Retrieved 28 September 2024.
↑Praveen, Priyanka (4 August 2017). "The dacoit of the art world". Deccan Chronicle. Archived from the original on 4 August 2017. Retrieved 28 September 2024.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
1234567Parakala, Vangmayi (6 May 2016). "On 15 May, this art will disappear". Archived from the original on 3 April 2019. Retrieved 30 September 2024.
↑"India's 'Banksy' behind provocative graffiti". BBC News. 12 December 2014. Archived from the original on 1 April 2023. Retrieved 28 September 2024.
↑Dhar, Govind (27 February 2014). "Indian street art festival gives a facelift to Delhi". BBC News. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
12Majumdar, Roshni (12 May 2016). "Indian street artist Daku reveals graffiti powered by the sun". CNN. Retrieved 15 November 2024.
DAKU (2015-12-25/2016-02-28). Time Changes Everything. Lodhi Art District. Google Arts & Culture. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
↑Lamba, Charu (28 November 2019) "Decoding Strategy for the Indian Market UNIQLO'S". IMAGES Business of Fashion. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
↑Sharma, Kamayani (January 2018). "In Full View". Art India Magazine 21 (4). pp. 30-39. ISSN0972-2947.
"Contributors". Art India Magazine 21 (4). pp. 30-39. p. 20. ISSN0972-2947.
"Where's our Banksy?". Art India Magazine 21 (4). pp. 30-39. pp. 52-63. ISSN0972-2947.
↑Singh, Amrita. "Remembering Hanif Kureshi, the artist credited with popularising street art in India". The Art Newspaper. Archived from the original on 12 November 2024. Retrieved 11 November 2024.
↑"Hanif Kureshi, who popularised street art in India's neighbourhoods, passes away at 41". The Indian Express. 23 September 2024. Retrieved 25 September 2024.
123456789Mandal, Soaham (2015). The Pictures on the Walls: Understanding and Defining Street Art Narratives of Delhi (MPhil thesis). Jawaharlal Nehru University.
↑DAKU (2015-12-20/2016-03-10). Breathe. Google Arts & Culture. Retrieved 15 November 2024.
12345Mukerji, Soumya. "All the world's a graffiti wall: Hanif Kureshi, saint and bandit of urban Indian street art". Stir World. Archived from the original on 27 September 2024. Retrieved 27 September 2024.
↑Visualek, Fred and Sowat; Kureshi, Hanif (2015-12-25/2016-02-28). We Love DelhiArchived 18 February 2024 at the Wayback Machine. Google Arts & Culture. Retrieved 15 November 2024.
↑"Chakraview at London Design Biennale". Architectural Digest India. Photographer: Vipul Sangoi. 7 September 2016. Archived from the original on 5 June 2023. Retrieved 27 September 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
↑"An Indian Summer Festival at Swarovski Crystal Worlds in Austria"Archived 21 May 2024 at the Wayback Machine. Outside Suburbia. Retrieved November 14, 2024.
↑Hill, Georgia; Kureshi, Hanif (2019). This Must Be The PlaceArchived 18 February 2024 at the Wayback Machine. Google Arts & Culture. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
↑Staugaitis, Larua (January 15, 2019). "Sunlight Casts Shadows of Phrases Exploring Theories of Time in a Street Art Installation by DAKU"Archived 14 February 2024 at the Wayback Machine. Colossal. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
↑Staugaitis, Laura (15 January 2019). "Sunlight Casts Shadows of Phrases Exploring Theories of Time in a Street Art". Colossal. Archived from the original on 14 February 2024. Retrieved 28 September 2024.
12345"Hanif Kureshi". XXL Collective. Retrieved 27 September 2024.
↑"Graffiti artist Daku's latest mural is a take on Chennai's water crisis". The Indian Express. 23 March 2021. Archived from the original on 21 August 2022. Retrieved 28 September 2024.
Further reading
"RIP Hanif Kureshi: Legacy lives on through Delhi's vibrant street art at Lodhi Colony's Art District". Hindustan Times. 24 September 2024.
Vasanthan, Sobhika (14 December 2023). "How Indian Artist DAKU Turned The Red Fort Into A Transient Canvas of Light & Shadow". Homegrown. Archived from the original on 27 September 2024. Retrieved 26 September 2024.
"Artistic Visionary Hanif Kureshi Passes Away, Leaving Behind a Vibrant Legacy in Street Art. – Asia Art Council". Retrieved 26 September 2024.
"Know More About Hanif Kureshi – IFP". 5 October 2021. Archived from the original on 21 May 2024. Retrieved 27 September 2024.
External links
Videos
Hanif Kureshi: Reclaiming Public Spaces for Art and Social Change (2023)
Sassoon Dock Art Project (2018)
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