California when I went on my first
graffiti spree and that was where I
created a 2-mile a trail of happy
messages with colored chalk the thought
of just strangers coming across my work
and perhaps feeling a little affected by
it really excited me as I grew older
though social messages were more
important to me as I became more aware
of the world outside of my world in 2007
I moved to Hyderabad from New York City
so I started I joined Facebook just to
keep in touch with my friends but I
didn’t use that platform to share my
artwork because I was afraid of people
stealing my ideas but on the day that I
did share my artwork things immediately
changed for me in 2010 we moved to
Bombay and that’s when I posted my first
artwork it was a piece on the Taliban
and once I posted it I once I posted it
I got a message from the Hindustan Times
they wanted to ask if I’d be willing to
be interviewed and I said of course so
the day the article came out which was
three days later the same day I got a
call from Elle magazine the features
editor wanted to know what I was what my
plans were and from that day on the
media the media was more interested in
what I was doing and where I was going
and here’s why I felt that perhaps they
were interested in what I was doing
there were three reasons one was that I
happened to have moved to Bombay
when street art culture had just hardly
just started to surface and
– I was a woman in India doing
unconventional things thirdly I I was
creating art that was relatable to
people that connected to them with media
ready to listen I knew that I could use
this to influence people for a good
purpose in 2012 we started a culture
shop here in Bandra we were determined
to find the best graphic artists Indian
graphic artists around the world put
them on to one platform and create the
new Indian art wave it takes a lot to
start something like this so it took me
two years off the streets where I didn’t
paint on the streets and I because I was
required to just put my head down and
work because we had a lot to do but then
my concentration my focus got
considerably interrupted at the end of
2012 my a 23 year old college student
savagely got gang-raped
on a bus in Delhi I had read that her
when she arrived to the hospital five
percent of her intestines were still in
her body and the rest had been pulled
out from the rapists the entire country
was in an uproar for weeks demanding
justice and changed my facebook messages
were crude and they were long and
sometimes I would spend 10 15 minutes on
these messages and then I would say okay
I have to not send them because I was
starting to sound like a crazy woman I
was just so angry I was consumed by
consumed by all of this and the more the
more opinions I started hearing that
happened to be twisted and backward the
more angry I got these double standards
against the victim and though the woman
just really added to the fury but
fast forward a couple of months later
culture shops next theme for its artists
was called The Times a look into the
struggles between traditional versus
no longer needed a right insane Facebook
messages anymore I now had a symbol that
I could use on social media a symbol
displaying the readiness to fight for
justice with dignity strength and wisdom
I named this artwork don’t mess with me
but people just naturally organically
started calling her the pink lady and
then soon after the editor of BuzzFeed
came across one of my wall pasting zuv
the pink lady and she found out who I
was within an hour thanks to social
media of course and she called me she
urged me to tell the world along with
others why India needs feminism so so I
started getting messages from women
across India and then a few hours later
across different parts of the world and
they wanted to just communicate to me
and tell me how much the pink lady was
resonating with them and then for the
next two days the pink lady t-shirts
were flying off the shelves and this was
the first time the pink lady the
so I started pasting her more on the
street with different messages and then
there was some time last year when this
one had faded it had been sitting there
on the wall for a year over a year a
midwife from the UK had come across this
piece and she immediately called the
founder of birth India and she said to
she was referring to the conference for
the Human Rights for childbirth that was
to take place earlier this year in 2017
they were looking for something to
express something modern and something
real for them to express to symbolize
this conference so they immediately got
in touch with me and I was happy to
license it to them while I was at the
conference for three days in February I
was surrounded by so many women an army
of women wearing pink lady t-shirts that
they had already previously bought from
culture shop and in January of this year
the pink lady was spotted at the women’s
March in different cities like New York
London DC and right now the pink lady is
in the u.s. she’s actively taking them
she’s taking more active role in the
resistance as a part of a collaboration
between culture shop and república Brown
in Los Angeles the pink lady is raising
money for Planned Parenthood a very
important very very important
organization for women a hundred percent
of the proceeds from the print lady
resistance collection goes straight to
Planned Parenthood and this is not just
a line of t-shirts it’s an act of
defiance it’s a protest against the
dismantling of women’s rights under the
trump administration and from what
started as chalk drawings on sidewalks
I’m finally able to say that I’m using
art as my weapon and putting my anger
and skill to good use art has always and
will always play an important role in
social activism it’s the influence it’s
its influence is one thing dictators and
political leaders can continue to fear
and should fear thank you [Applause]