DC talks to The Third Kind — T3K about how they came together
T3K
They’re not vandals, nor are they criminals. Graffiti straddles the fine line between vandalism and ‘art as expression’, because in the words of Prasanth Baskaran, “If it’s not illegal, it’s not graffiti.” The 24-year-old, who describes himself as a graffiti writer, is a member of The Third Kind, also known as T3K. They are probably Chennai’s first, and only graffiti crew, and they are no longer illegal.
So, what does it mean to be legal? “We have permission from the authorities now — the Chennai Corporation and the police. That’s actually easy if you know the right people,” he smiles. The ‘we’ here refers to Prasanth, Mohammad Aqueel Hussain, and brothers Veera and Deva who are also the youngest members of the crew at 18 and 17 years of age respectively. Together they have been creating some amazing pieces of graffiti all over Chennai. “Before, we were writing graffiti individually,” Prasanth explains about how T3K met. “We work under pseudonyms. I am dibs 132, Aqueel is akill, Veera is mugen and Deva is siken02. That’s what we tagged our walls and knew each other as. We kept on doing this until we met quite coincidentally because of a wall in Valluvarkottam we all used in the span of two months.”
Their interactions began on Facebook, and they quickly discovered each other’s enthusiasm for hip-hop and graffiti. “Both Veera and Deva fell in love with graffiti through their hip hop classes. I fell in love with this form of writing and that’s how I discovered hip-hop. It’s the same story for Aqueel as well. Not many people know how these two forms are connected and we just want more people to know about it,” says Prasanth.
Now that they are legal, they no longer have run-ins with the authorities — something Prasanth misses. “That’s how all graffiti writers start, you know. We bomb places (illegally painting over property) and start tagging. Sometimes you get busted, sometimes you don’t, but that’s the soul of graffiti.”
Right now we do a lot of production, which means graffiti made with permission. That includes commissioned pieces for coffee shops, stores and so on,” says Prasanth. It’s a big deal for them to be recognised, as you need money to write on the streets. Graffiti bombers at heart, they are looking for ways to fund their passion, he quips. In India, spray paint cans are pretty expensive and creating commissioned works are a solution.
Being legal is actually quite fun. Now that they don’t have to worry about paying fines, T3K is focusing on their style and exposing other people to graffiti. “We have our own style where a lot of words and alphabets are used. Our pieces also have lot of Chennai-based accents. Our aim is to create a style unique to India, establish the rules and push it to the international platform. We have styles from New York, Paris and other cities, but not an Indian style,” Prasanth says. Currently, they are also planning on holding a workshop for enthusiasts on graffiti and hip hop culture.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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