Art in public space

Rajnish Wattas

“The age of personal statues is gone,” wrote Le Corbusier, the Swiss-born French architect, in his edict for the city of Chandigarh. And he followed it up by designing an abstract symbol of Open Hand as an emblem for the city instead of glorifying any national hero or icon. Though, the race to build the ‘highest statue’ of a leader or a historic icon is very much on in the country to fulfil political agendas.

Notwithstanding bursts of nationalist fervour, a huge movement is visible, especially in the developed world, to embellish public spaces in cities with impactful art forms, whether through a temporary installation, a sculpture, a mural or just plain street art, including graffiti. Such forms of creative expression extend a connect to the architectural context, bring identity to the space and get etched in the collective memory of the city.

Though in our country, the usual art forms adorning the cities are statues of national leaders or local netas; barring a few exceptions of a modern art installation sighted in a new development. The typical small town artistry is the clichéd ‘Gandhi chowk’ or a ‘Nehru chowk’ adorned with a crude bust of the icon or some garish flourish by the local artist.

Could we not brighten up our usually dismal urban skylines with some high quality art work that would become an attraction by itself and beautify the public space?

Imagine if Sector 17’s Plaza in Chandigarh had an Anish Kapoor or an Alexander Calder sculpture? How much public curiosity and engagement it would evoke?

One of the most beautiful cities known for its public art is Chicago. Almost every major piazza, park or public space; especially in the downtown area defined by magnificent sky-soaring skyscrapers, is replete with world-class urban art. While the city is home of iconic ‘masters’ of modern architecture like Mies Vander Rohe and Frank Llyod Wright, it also has the distinction of being the only city having a Picasso sculpture in a public space. And then there is one by Anish Kapoor too. The Cloud Gate, popularly called the Bean, by Kapoor is a reflective steel sculpture shaped like a bean inspired by liquid mercury. Its convex and concave surface playfully reflect and distort the city’s high-rise skyline.

Another monumental sculpture is The Picasso, an untitled work of art by Pablo Picasso. The sculpture is 50-feet tall and weighs 162 tons. The master never explained the enigmatic Cubist sculpture and left it to individual interpretations. It is rumoured to have been inspired by a young woman close to the artist. It is the only instance of a sculpture by Picasso installed in a public space.

In the 1990s, there grew a global trend towards anti-monuments and memorial practices in the art world. “A differentiation of these new practices from previous forms of artistic presence in the public space called for alternative definitions, some of them more specific such as: contextual art, relational art, participatory art, dialogic art, community-based art, activist art — under the banner of new genre public art”. In this way, public art functioned as a social intervention and artists became socially engaged with audiences that typically did not participate in traditional art museums.

Another outstanding example of interactive art besides the Cloud Gate is of the Crown Fountain in the Millennium Park of Chicago, a fascinating interactive work of public art and video sculpture that opened in July 2004. It comprises of a reflecting pool placed between a pair of transparent 50-feet-high glass brick towers, with light-emitting diodes behind the bricks to show evocative changing digital displays. Huge crowds come to watch it, especially in summers.

Then there is the exciting trend of putting up temporary installations at key public spaces for a limited period. In such endeavours artists get a unique opportunity to make a social or political comment or commemorate an occasion.

In London sometimes back, to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the World War-I, a hugely daring installation of placing millions of ceramic poppies, signifying blood-soaked fields, was put up. Titled, Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red it was installed in the moat around the Tower of London. Created by artists Paul Cummins and Tom Piper, 8,88,246 ceramic poppies progressively filled the Tower’s famous moat between July and November 2014. The stupendous sea of poppies looked so realistic that one almost thought that these had been actually planted and were blooming in the English summer.

Another very impactful place for temporary city art is the Pioneer Court in Chicago. It is close to the river and the Michigan Avenue where top ranking artists put up exquisite large-scale sculptures on varying themes from time to time. Among the most memorable is titled ‘God Bless America’ put up by sculptor Seward Johnson in 2009, based on a famous painting on American history by Grant Wood, symbolising the spirit of thrift, hard work by the pioneering Americans.

Many cities across the world actively encourage the creation of public art, by having budget for artworks in new buildings by implementing a ‘Percent for Art’ policy, under which one to two per cent of the total cost of city improvement projects is allocated specifically for artwork. The majority of European countries, Australia, several countries in Africa and many cities and states in the US, have such art programmes.

Alas, India, one of the most rapidly urbanising countries in the world today, attaches little value to urban aesthetics at the public spaces. While our elite metropolitan cities or vibrant global IT hubs invest lavish funds on opulent malls, multiplexes or razzmatazz night spots and the old historic cities have their religious statutory of gods or goddess — modern art is conspicuous by its absence.

Cities are the matrix of a civilisation. Will our coming generations grow up only in the neon-lit concrete and glass jungles sans a soul?

Legacy of urban art

Le Corbusier, the architect-planner of Chandigarh, was a noted painter, sculptor and designer who had an abiding commitment to public art for the city. Besides his well-known art works in the Capitol Complex such as the landmark Open Hand sculpture, he also painted the huge 24 X 24 feet enamelled door of the Assembly and created other art forms like bas-reliefs and murals such as the 24 Solar Hours on the Geometric Hill. Besides these, he designed numerous tapestries for the Assembly and the High Court interiors. Carrying forward the torch of city art, Pierre Jeanerette, his local associate, also went on to design many beautiful simple brickwork murals on the walls of the MLAs hostel building and schools.

Among the Indian architects, numerous water sculptures designed by M N Sharma exist in Sector 17 piazzas. There is also a fascinating cluster of sculptures in the Leisure Valley, near Sector 10. Plans are afoot for a major sculpture park soon to be established close to it.