Talwinder Singh’s never been the kind of guy to ponder and scrutinise. He much prefers freeform, impulse driven expression, the best philosophy for an up-and-coming graffiti artist.
“Nothing so deep – just have fun,” he says about the message behind his works.
The seed of Talwinder’s street art passion came a long time back, when as a child in Chandigarh, he used to doodle all over his walls and notebooks.
“I didn’t know it was called graffiti [back then],” he recalls. “Everything I was consuming [was] from the movies…New York style, the subways, the trains, the huge letters written in English.”
He found himself drawn to the urban, experimental ethos of the art form and the freedom to create outside of institutional boundaries.
“It’s like, real – you know, like self-expression. Most of the time a lot of artists don’t get their artwork picked up by the galleries,” he says about graffiti.
“It’s like the whole world is like a canvas; you can do it anywhere, whatever you want to do, no restrictions, no rules, no one’s going to judge, that kind of stuff.”
It’s an ethos that lends itself well to the commentary within Talwinder’s works, heavily influenced by his Punjabi heritage – ‘Farmer Marching’ depicts an elderly farmer marching and kicking the ground like a revolutionary, a reimagining of a famous photo from the 2020 farming law protests, and ‘Sikh Anzac’ is a regal portrait of a Sikh man in military uniform, a reminder of their contributions.
The works formed part of Talwinder’s first exhibition, ‘The Punjabi Graffiti’ at Berwick’s Old Cheese Factory in 2024, where he also pioneered his playful and vibrant Gurmukhi lettering.
Inspired by the emergence of Punjabi street culture, including hip hop artists like Raf Saperra, Karan Aujla, and even his namesake, Talwinder’s art infuses tradition with loud and rebellious swagger to create a powerful statement on cultural pride.
“Graffiti is what’s going on; it’s the voice off the streets, you know, for the people. That’s why I did that,” he says about the political sentiment behind these works.
Though graffiti originates from the streets, Talwinder isn’t out and about tagging buildings; he prefers to work on canvasses, inspired just as much by the works of Van Gogh and Da Vinci as he is graffiti legends like Taki183, Blek le Rat, and Cornbread.
Still, most of the diaspora see street art through the lens of vandalism and anarchy, and Talwinder’s bold, tongue-in-cheek proclamations mightn’t appeal to everyone – of course, he isn’t fazed by such judgement.
“I’m not here for their validation,” he says pointedly. “I just like writing stuff.”
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Talwinder Punjabi graffiti artist
“You have to have [a] thick skin, man. You just can’t get offended by small things…it is what it is.”
He believes the best way to learn is by opening up to the audacious spirit of the form.
“If you feel like doing [graffiti] you can do this – it’s not like you need a teacher or something, that’s the good thing about this.”
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