Manav Gupta’s installation got a record-breaking viewership at India Habitat Center. The artist tells Karan Bhardwaj that he is planning more artworks in public spaces
If you have visited India Habitat Center in last three months, you might have come across a flowing Ganga, made up of earthen lamps, cups and chillams. The installation’s showing that has now come to an end registered a record viewership of over one lakh people. Artist Manav Gupta, who created the installation to highlight the importance of sustainable living, calls the experience “magical” and “divine”. “In the last few days, climate has not been favourable. There were incessant rains and storms but miraculously, not even one lamp or chillam got damaged despite not being glued or fixed to ground. In fact, when rains poured down, water carved its own path through the stones. So it blent well with nature. In fact it absorbed the power of nature,” he says.
Titled Rain the Ganga Waterfront along the Time Machine, it is a part of Gupta’s ongoing series Excavations in Hymns of Clay. “Through my works, I want to raise consciousness of people towards earth’s depleting resources. Environment is one big concern. And I am just taking forward what has already been showcased at global platforms. Personally, I have grown up very close to nature so it was obvious to translate those thoughts in my work,” he says.
Gupta has been doing murals for a few years now. In 2011 he presented Bhutan–India relations on a public mural commissioned by the Government of India and mounted it in Bhutan. The monumental work consisted of a suite of 18ft X 12ft high canvases mapping the political, social and cultural ties between the two countries. He also famously painted Airtel building’s five-storeyed facade. “Public art has rarely been attempted in India. We have regular exhibitions at auditoriums and museums but open art at such a grand scale where ordinary people can be engaged is not done,” he says.
This installation has also highlighted architectural ethos in public spaces. Pots and lamps which are otherwise dumped at roadsides were used as a metaphor for earthy resources which commanded respect from visitors. “There’s was a great architectural intervention in this art. It was like a river flowing on the walls and steps, where walls became mountains and steps turned out to be plateaus. I saw many children who would not even touch the discarded lamps realising it forms a part of this installation,” he tells us.
Gupta’s works have been sold by Christie’s, Bonhams, Philip de Pury and are in leading permanent public collections around the world including the Parliament of India, Rashtrapati Bhawan, the Royal family of Oman and Indian embassies abroad. In his present series of 12 artworks, he has only showcased five installations. “I have a few more surprises coming your way soon but they will also be about environment and earth,” he says.