The Mall Picker

Not much thought goes into tossing soft drink cans into a mall’s dustbin. But when these get out of that garbage dump and turn into butterflies,it’s imperative to take notice. Artist Arun Verma has created an installation of five butterflies with 350 kg of “mall waste”,which is currently on display at Select Citywalk.

These intricately designed butterflies,accentuated by shades of blue,are suspended from the roof of the mall and have become the reason behind visitors tilting their heads upwards once they reach the centre of the mall. Designed for Earth Day,which was on April 22,Verma and his team of fabricators took almost a week to create the installation. The butterflies have been made using cans and scrap waste generated at the mall,which includes the remains of the maintenance of escalators,elevators,backboards,pieces of shutters and shop stands.

“I call it Metal-morphosis. I have made a swarm of butterflies because they signify metamorphosis. Just like they change their structure completely,the installation is an evolution from scrap,” said 40-year-old Verma. “Delhi lacks public art. The scrap we generate in the city is huge in number. If we turn waste into something beautiful,it is a job half done,” added Verma.

This is not the first time that Verma has set up a public art installation. Two years ago,a noted Indian watch company approached him to create an installation with old wrist watches it had received during its watch exchange offer. “Using 600 kg of old watches,I created an eight- feet-long wrist watch,which was on display across the country,” said Verma.

The work is on display at Select Citywalk,Saket till May 12