THE POWER OF WALL ART WITH PIGS

11 Nov 2017

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Wall Art is interesting, creative and unrestricted. It is an incredibly diverse and varied art movement, one that is growing in popularity as work being exhibited on the walls continues to develop in terms of size, style, and sheer skill.

Still, some people (normally Mr Average Joe) do not understand what wall art is; their head fills with images of vandalised bus stops, tagged alleyways and with spray cans on the side of train tracks. But the message and the value of it is significant for the artists that we are talking about here. Ismriti Purja and Sharave Gurung are the power couple that have been creating magic on the walls of various restaurants and eateries you visit. To talk more about Pigs, we had a chat with them and got to know their process. This is what they had to say.

HOW DID YOU GUYS DECIDE ON STARTING PIGS?

Before we talk about Pigs, we have to go back to what we did before to get a better picture of how we came to be. First we started with a company which modified the Royal Enfield Bullet bikes but unfortunately that business only survived for six months.

We had some partnership problems and we couldn’t work it out. We then had another business called BuzzNepal, which was an entertainment based company which focused on making YouTube videos. That also was a partnership situation, and like it is said, too many cooks spoil the broth. We had a lot of ideas and we couldn’t filter it out and make a decision without making someone feel bad. However, we were all very young and inexperienced. Talking about us, we have known each other for about 8 years now and we share a common passion for art. We had been posting our art pieces on social media and one day we decided that we could do something about art and according to our passion. We didn’t think much about the business aspect of it then but sustaining a business to-do proved to be as important as striving with passion.

WERE THERE ANY CHALLENGES YOU HAD TO FACE DURING THE OPERATION OF PIGS? IF SO WHAT HELPED YOU STILL GO AT IT?

We had no direction at first. We were doing everything that we could do. It is very hard to sustain in the Nepali market in the creative field because people didn’t usually think of art as something that is necessary and we were really underpaid for it. It was definitely a learning process and we got some motivation from our teachers and friends. They taught us how to come up with a pricing structure and how to operate the business efficiently which was a big help for us. Slowly we started gaining some name for what we were doing which made it a little easier.

WHY THE NAME, PIGS?

After we decided to start Pigs, we decided to put up a Facebook page but we hadn’t decided on the name Pigs yet but it has a different meaning than the name itself. It is simply our initials put together and it made the word Pigs. Well, it sounded good to be honest and we stuck to it.

WHAT IS PIGS? WHAT TYPE OF WORK DO YOU DO?

We do all kind of artwork ranging from wall art to creating customized artwork on mugs and badges. Public spaces were becoming tasteless and boring, and we wanted to add some fun elements in there, while at the same time we wanted to make a stand against those commercial advertisement which were limiting people’s life style in the city. Creating a platform for people to appreciate art at the least is essential. And that’s how we started to think about what messages we want to convey and how we were going to use street art as a media.

WHAT PLANS DO YOU HAVE FOR THE FUTURE?

Our aim is to enjoy what to do right now and in the future! Doing creative work freely, enjoying the voyages of life and creation, flying to different realms of creativity are what we hope for, as the pleasure in it is irreplaceable. However, that being said we do want to try out various techniques to make what we do visually and mentally pleasing. We would like to expand with our own merchandise and that seems very probable.

There are wall and street artists in nearly every country in the world who are influenced and inspired by a multitude of cultures and styles, resulting in a wide and expansive body of urban art that can be found all over the world. New pieces pop up by the second, as other pieces get removed or erased.