Whimsical Walkabout

The capital city has a new traffic-stopper. Enroute to Mehrauli, vehicles seem to be slowing down, and passers-by craning their necks, curio...

The capital city has a new traffic-stopper. Enroute to Mehrauli, vehicles seem to be slowing down, and passers-by craning their necks, curious about a new sensory fete — to call it a mere garden would be a travesty of sorts.

Rubbing boundaries with the restored historic site of Qutub Minar, the first-ever instance of a permanent display of art in a public space in the country, The Garden of Five Senses opened a month ago. The visage: Twenty acres of undulating green slopes with dainty paved pathways and pedestal-like boulders. Amidst transplanted varieties of bamboo, cactus, fish palm and rudraksh are works of art by Ratnabali Kant, Kristine Michael, M J Enas, Subodh Kerkar, K S Radhakrishnan and Shanti Lal Ghosh, to name a few.

The five senses that this garden indulges are smell (courtesy, the flowering plants), sight, touch (a tactile area tempts visitors to touch and experience rock surfaces), sound (one can hear the 500 bells of the sound sculpture by ceramic artist Kristine Michael even before setting foot in the garden) and, of course, taste (treats from an exotic food court complete the experience).

Dizzy About DNA

KRISTINE MICHAEL likes to feel her art and she insists you join her as she stands under her latest creation — the thirty-feet tall sound sculpture, surrounded by a lily pond, at the Garden of Five Senses. Modelled on the DNA structure, it’s curved up in a dizzying double helix spiral, laden with no less than 500 blue ceramic bells that ring incessantly as they catch the wind. ‘‘This is the only way to breathe in the complete experience of this work,’’ whispers the ceramic artist.

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From colourful blouse pieces off a local village mart to clay, anything and everything can catch Michael’s fancy. In her hands, things just lend themselves to ideas. There’s simply no technique behind it. ‘‘Ceramic artists and studio potters spend years stuck on technique. Now, after all these years, I can actually pick up one to fit the concept I am working with,’’ says the artist, who nurtures ideas for years, only to be surprised when they resurface uncalled for. The bells at the garden are a classic example, for the project, she says, is an offshoot of having worked on spirals years ago. So is the snake with four feet and red claws, also installed at the garden. Each of her pieces — ideated or a result of ‘‘short bursts’’ of creativity — are socially relevant, she insists. ‘‘Not only destruction and death, even beauty can be projected to create a message,’’ she says.

But what role does the art on display play? ‘‘The project was conceived with all the artwork in mind,’’ says the garden’s architect Pradeep Sachdeva, of the Dilli Haat fame, who worked on the ambitious project with officials from the Delhi Travel and Tourism Development Corporation (DTTDC) and ex-Secretary (Culture) M Vardarajan.

The air’s obviously buzzing with excitement and anxiety over the response. ‘‘I have seen people taking photographs of sculptures,’’ says Ratnabali Kant, whose bronze sculpture at the garden depicts the connection of our senses with the seasons, even as each blade of Kerkar’s metal pinwheels rhymes with the breeze and the upside-down tree by John Bowman gets visitors thinking.

The fervour, however, ends here. For, some visitors don’t mind scrambling atop the heights, posing with Ajay Kumar H G’s fluorescent green and orange latex bulls. This enthusiasm has also spelt vandalism, in some cases — Michael’s sound sculpture experienced damage within 10 days of the opening, with bits of her blue ceramic bells scattered underneath.

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Funnily enough, Ramesh Talwar, the MD of DTTDC, feels the project will help teach people to respect public property. ‘‘Why do Indians have to cut right through a lawn instead of walking around it,’’ he complains, defending, ‘‘This project will help change attitudes; it will make people realise the value of things.’’

The artists, on the other hand, are happy to use the platform to reach their audience. The interaction eggs them further. ‘‘My work has never been the pride of a public place,’’ says Radhakrishnan, for whom both corporate foyers and farmhouses have served as galleries. The sculpture artist, however, rues getting only 45 days to prepare the work of art. ‘‘They should have let the art works collect over 50 years, instead of acquiring all of them in 50 days,’’ he says.

All said and done, with the coming years holding the promise of more of the same, it’s a colourful palette we are in for.

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