Henry Gee Roberts

Daku
Born	Real name: unknown Date of birth: unknown Birthplace: unknown
Known for	Graffiti Street art Social commentary
Website	www.daku156.com

Daku is a pseudonymous graffiti artist from India.

Career

[The street art is] decorative, contextual, layered and artists aren’t afraid of giving their name. Graffiti is more underground, more rebel.

— Daku, Wall Street Journal, 2013

He was introduced to graffiti in 2006 and started working in 2008-09. He worked with global graffiti group, 156 for a year in Mumbai. He also collaborated with two other graffiti artist, Bond and Zine in Delhi in 2008. He started tagging his own name in Devnagari script on walls in Mumbai and South Delhi in 2008 and told that he did it to reach large Indian population who understand only local languages. He stenciled fuck in Hindi across nine places in Mumbai overnighta in 2011 to protest against Vasant Dhoble, assistant commissioner of police who was accused of moral policing. He regularly commented on social issues by his works like stenciled LPG cylinder rocket to highlight price rise, blindfolded protester during 2011 Indian anti-corruption movement. Before 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, he modified several stop signs to deliver messages and provoke reaction from public. He tagged many garbage bins with Ku Da in Delhi, an anagram of his own name. For years he tags his name Daku across cities in India in indigenous fonts and typographies including Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad and Baroda. He along with others, did 200 meter long and seven meter high wall graffiti, commissioned at Buddh International Circuit. He along with Bond, created 200 square meter graffiti at IIT Bombay TechFest in 2011.

He organized India's first ever street art festival in Delhi in 2013. His works have been showcased at venues such as the Centre Pompidou, Venice Biennale and Triennale Design museum.