The essence of Indian art

Curating concepts to interpret the idea of India, a battery of designers, artists, artisans, architects and the best of technicians collaborated to deliver what is India's largest art in public space initiative, The Art Program. Amongst these large installations, two are ready to be shipped off to the Mumbai airport where they will become a part of a collective manifestation of the best our country has to offer. But before that, Delhi gets a special preview of these artworks on the 9 July in Mehrauli, where visitors will have the opportunity to see the art works and interact with the creators over High Tea. 

Over the last three years, Rajeev Sethi, an eminent scenographer and chairman of the Asian Heritage foundation spearheaded this programme to represent  21st century India in a manner that leaves visitors with no doubt that they are in India. 

The first work by Rajeev Sethi, Reappearances below the Tarmac was conceived as a play on the idea of the airport as a virtual metropolis, and the city that disappears and reappears around these 21st century hubs. The cross-runway unique to the Mumbai Airport transforms into a vortex amid an enormous mosaic reminiscent of the city as we fly in. Amid this terracotta skyscape fly mythical airplanes and whimsical flying machines crafted by the potters of Molela, a village near Udaipur, in a significant departure from the customary votive terracotta plaques of gods and goddesses they make. Interspersed between are contemporary studio photographs of young men and women, re-touched up by miniature painters.

 The second, Touché, also by Rajeev Sethi, is inspired by the panchamahabhutas in a symbolic elemental greeting. These coalesce in various permutations and combinations to create the Universe and the five senses by which we perceive them. Air, the second element, born of the agitation created in the vast stillness of space by primordial sound, is expressed as the pavan (wind) and sparsh or the sense of touch. 

Interpreting Jaipur’s Hawa Mahal or Palace of Winds as a visual metaphor, Touché celebrates the gentle breeze in the arid desert as it wafts through intricate jaalis and the joyous indulgence in this simple sensual pleasure. 

Referencing the quintessentially tactile quality of textiles, the Hawa Mahal here morphs into an enormous pagdi or turban – insouciantly transforming textile into architecture. 

Head over to see these two art installations being displayed for the first and the only time in Delhi.