At Huda City Centre station, murals breathe life into metro commute

GURUGRAM: Metro rides can get rather mundane with their clockwork operations, homogenous architecture and sanitised stations. When the metro stops at Huda City Centre, the city’s last and busiest metro station, a blast of colours jolts you out of your stupor.
Muted tropical colours inspired by a 70s New York-based pop artist. A game of snake and ladder painted on lockers.A whimsical map of everything essentially Gurgaon. And it’s everywhere – the walkway, the basement, the parking. The Instagram generation stops for a quick selfie. A group of college-goers starts an animated discussion of what exactly the vibrant splash of colours on the “urban” pyramids mean.
Uniformity of theme was never the idea. In fact, most of the artwork was by trial and error. “There was no general theme, no big-picture idea we had to stick to. We experimented with ideas and styles. We have to realise – art is subjective. Half the people like what they see, the other half may not,” says Anutosh Kanoria, an architect and interior collaborator for TheCircle.Work.
Since April, TheCircle.Work, a co-working platform, Delhi Street Art and Shriram School students have been at work, patiently transforming dull anodyne spaces into art exhibits. “More than 65 companies operate in the co-working space. That kind of diversity had to be reflected in the graffiti. The art just couldn’t be confined to a single theme,” says Yogesh Saini from Delhi Street Art.
For a while now, Gurgaon has been opening up its public spaces like Sohna Road and mini secretariat – for graffiti. What this does, Kanoria says, is create a sense of community. The spaces people live in and frequent turn into spaces of self-expression.
“Graffiti and co-working spaces have that in common – a sense of community and bonding. For instance, for the metro station ramp, we worked with children from local schools. A lot of these kids come in to shop or eat at the complex. When they see their own work on the wall, it is an extension of the community feeling. They take pride in their work. This sense of belonging is important,” he adds.