SCRAP ART

When Chandigarh, designed by Le Corbusier, was built up in the early 1950s there was a lot of waste material left over as a result of the building activity. A road inspector had a dream of creating a beautiful fantasy out of bits and pieces, which otherwise would have been a problem to dump around the beautiful city. He created a fantasy, which he called the Rock Garden.

Passages of rock and concrete open out into spaces with human figures studded with tiles and marble. Walls are studded with broken tiles, bathroom fixtures, old crockery and switchgear. Discarded water pots form trellises. Whimsy birds fashioned of concrete sit on the roof of a little hut. A waterfall cascades over an open-air theatre paved with broken slate. Turquoise bangles are used to fashion peacocks. An upturned enamel basin serves as a soldier’s hat!

The Rock Garden illustrates that what is one man’s garbage is another man’s dream. The creator Nek Chand has been honoured by many cities around the world including Washington, New York and Baltimore. While the Indian government conferred the prestigious Padma Shri on Nek Chand, the French awarded him the Grande Medaille de Vermeil. All these achievements seem more spectacular when one is told that he had no formal training in art of sculpture.

It is said so well that beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. However, it is a greater to be able to draw out this beauty from what seems to be useless and allow others to see it as well. Thousands flock to see Nek Chand’s fantasy that teaches us that nothing is really scrap… and more importantly that everything can be turned into a piece of art… only if we back our a positive vision with proactive action.

Look again at what seems scrap to BE BETTER at art,
The world of possibilities awaits your proactive start.

- Pravin-da