The port city of Kochi in Kerala is beguiling audiences online. Or more specifically a series of satirical graffiti that has cropped up on Kochi’s walls.

Bearing the signature “GuessWho”, the graffiti work has burst upon Facebook, Twitter and Instagram feeds. Its style seems influenced by the famous anonymous British street artist called Banksy. Usually centred on pop culture, the graffiti mashes up western icons with Indian settings.

In one artwork, John Lennon can be spotted wearing a lungi. In another, Mona Lisa is carrying a pot on her head. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels are meditating Indian saints in yet another.

The appearance of the graffiti coincides with the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, an international exhibition of contemporary art, and appears to also aim a dig at the organised festival. The artist/artists refused to drop the veil of anonymity in an email interview with the BBC but explained the motivation:
It was mainly an alternative way to use a visual language that people are unfamiliar with here. But at the same time they can connect and communicate with the image and subject while being subtly political. It is also about using public spaces and subversive tactics as potent means of speaking about social realities.

Here are some of the works from GuessWho’s Instagram feed: