Photographs from the royal collection of Udaipur, pictures of theatre personalities by Shobha Deepak Singh and digital artworks will be displayed at Jor Bagh and Mandi House metro stations under IHC’s new initiative
Next time you travel by the Delhi Metro, spare some minutes to look around the stations. You may find interesting artworks adorning the walls of the metro station and alongside, you can also find the details of those artworks. In the last few months, metro stations have become a favourite spot to display art and other creative projects. Making most of the trend, India Habitat Centre has come up with an initiative to display art at the public platform in collaboration with Delhi Metro. Beginning from January 15, a series of light boxes at two metro stations — Jor Bagh and the Mandi House — will showcase artworks that range from photographs, art prints, video and digital works. Text in both English and Hindi would accompany the artworks that are expected to change every three months.
“Community art refers to field of community, neighbourhood and public art practice with roots in social justice and popular education methods. The Habitat Initiative, hence, has been about working in the genre of community arts, primarily using photographs, prints, video and digital work. The aim is to promote art in a dynamic way and create awareness through such exhibitions. The two metro stations that we have chosen are important and popular ones.
Jor Bagh is close to IHC and Mandi House is famous among cultural enthusiasts because of the presence of so many art and cultural venues. After beginning with these two major stations, we may extend the initiative to other stations as well,” says curator Alka Pande. Photographs from the exhibition The long Exposure at Udaipur, 1857-1957 would be displayed on three lightboxes at the Jor Bagh metro station from January till March 2015. Nearly 20 prints of some photographs from this collection would also be displayed on the walls there.
The displayed images would include painted photographs or hand-coloured photographs. The portraits will show the three generations of Maharanas who ruled Mewar from 1884 to 1995. Udaipur was amongst the earliest places to record the appearance of a camera, in the form of the camera obscura, an optical device meant to assist in the creation of realistic painting.
Pre-dating the arrival of photography in India in 1840, it was used as early as 1818 by Colonel James Tod, the British political agent at the Court of Mewar. The photographic collection of the House of Mewar, which is on display at the City Palace of Udaipur, is a testament to the camera’s documentary role in Mewar over a century, allowing for a nuanced insight into a complex world of hierarchy, power, symbolism and pride.
Since March is the month of Holi, Tarun Chhabra’s photographs of the festival will be displayed on two lightboxes at Mandi House metro station. The third lightbox at Mandi House would display a poster from the Crime Writers Festival at the time when the festival will be held at the Habitat on January 17 and 18. “This has been especially chosen to encourage gender sensitisation during these times of rising crime against women. Following the completion of the Crime Writers Festival, the same lightbox would display Australian artist Robyn Beech’s photographs on Holi.
The exhibits will play a prominent role in keeping the public informed. So the fourth lightbox at Mandi House will display the calendar of upcoming events happening at the Indian Habitat Centre so that people have a ready reckoner for each month,” adds Pande. After the first three months (January-March), both the metro stations would feature a new set of works from April till June. The Jor Bagh metro station would have images from Shashi Gogate’s photographs of women leaders from across India while the Mandi House metro station would have images from Shobha Deepak Singh’s collection of photographs on some prominent theatre personalities.