JOIN USAn unending row of inverted earthen lamps from a wall to the portals of India Habitat Centre, prompt passersby to look up and find their source. What comes across is a magnificent public art installation titled ‘Rain, The Ganga Waterfront Along The Time Machine’.
Chillums appear to flow from top of the wall at the Plaza Steps before making way for the diyas and kullads (earthen cups), providing an awe inspiring image of river Ganga as it flows from the tresses of Lord Shiva to Gangotri and henceforth.
“Clay has never been deployed to create an installation and that is the reason I used it,” says Manav Gupta, the versatile contemporary artist who has been working on the series ‘Excavations In Hymns Of Clay’ since quite some time.
“I first presented a small version of this in 2012 in South Africa’s National Museum. Since then, I wanted to take it to public because I feel art should be accessible to people,” says Gupta emphasising on the need for more such public installations. “They engage the viewers in discourse with the artist.”
His thought resonates in his work that has been capturing attention at this specific site which is the city’s cultural hub. So why this obsession with clay?
“Clay is relevant because it is what we and the earth is made up of.” The pollution of the rivers, the shrinking of water and its availability and such other climate change issues have been in the artist’s ethos of work since beginning.
“I purposely wanted the clay to not intrude on the architecture of the place, but rather blend with it,” says he when asked about the use of chillums just next to the wall, making it difficult to separate the two, in vision at least. In addition, the artist also informs that it was his attempt to convey a message within a message that made him choose chillums.
“Don’t be drugged, get drenched in Rain!” he says to the youngsters.The diyas are symbolic of the numerous prayers that are offered by people at the ghat of the Ganges. At the same time, using this prop from a poor artisan’s kiln adds deeper meaning while raising consciousness on sustainable development and the need to conserve the environment.
Gupta elaborates, “We pick diyas made by potters, recognise them when they are at the altar and then throw them away. I, therefore, specifically used them to show how humans use limited resources of Earth. The larger message is of ‘sustainability’ wherein Ganga becomes my idiom and sutradhar and diya my metaphor.”
Since Gupta has always been inspired by nature, this installation can be considered as an extension of his affinity with the elements. The best view comes at twilight when the horizon takes shades of darker blue and the yellow lights are turned on. The artificial light is visible in between the toughened clay and illuminates the entire installation. A picturesque scene indeed.
It then strikes that the visual image of a river has been created, miles away from its shore, without any use of water. The public art installation is on view at the Plaza Steps, India Habitat Centre till April 20.