Mumbai street artist Tyler on his stencil becoming a protest symbol at Jantar Mantar

Unless you have been living under a rock in India, it is likely that you might have encountered a barrage of memes, posters, and art created by Gen Z protesters, showcasing their dissent against the NEET examination paper leak. Although spearheaded by the Cockroach Janata Party, protestors from across the country have been turning to art to find a medium to express their discontentment with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi.

Popular among them is a stencil of Modi flanked by industrialists Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani. The two can be seen kissing the PM. Behind this poster is Tyler Street Art, often known as Mumbai’s Banksy, who uses graffiti as the intended medium, to make art that matters to the public today.

“Street art has always been more than decoration. It gives ordinary people a visual language to question authority, challenge dominant narratives and reclaim public space,” they say in an anonymous interview. Tyler, an anonymous street artist has been making street art since 2012, using public space as a canvas to start conversations. Some of their earliest works sounding the alarm bells of a broken democracy can be traced back to 2019. Tyler prefers to keep their identity separate from their work because they would like for the idea to speak for itself.

“Unlike a gallery, the street doesn’t have gatekeepers deciding which conversations deserve attention. A single image on a wall can travel far beyond that wall, especially today through social media. Even when people disagree with it, the conversation has already begun. That’s what interests me most,” they say.

Tyler says that seeing many people adopt the Modi, Adani and Ambani poster being widely shared online and later being carried by students during the protests at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi was surreal. It is when art stopped being art and much rather, a tool. Political movements often grow through symbols, and street art has always been one way those symbols emerge organically.

“I made the piece to raise questions about power and the relationship between politics and big business. I wasn’t trying to create an official protest symbol. Once people started carrying it themselves, the meaning expanded beyond my original intention. I think that’s one of the strengths of street art,” they say. Street art, unlike work inside a gallery, belongs to whoever finds it, shares it or reinterprets it, they add.

Over the years, Tyler has seen some of their works removed, painted over, or taken down shortly after they appeared. Does the censorship affect him? “That’s part of working in public space. I don’t see censorship as the end of the artwork. Sometimes it becomes part of the story. When an image disappears, people often start asking why it disappeared. In that sense, the reaction can reveal as much as the original piece,” they say.

Tyler adds that it has made them think more carefully about where, when and how they work, but it has not fundamentally changed why they make the work.

For the sake of the protest, the artist has made their prints available for free on Instagram. Art must after all, comfort the disturbed and disturb the powerful.

To follow Tyler’s work, check @tylerstreetart. on Instagram