This weekend, Vibha had few meetings at India Habitat Center and she asked if I want to join her. I was reluctant as it was super hot outside and I didn't have a convincing plan about what to do when she is busy. Since the meetings were at IHC, I thought I will spend time checking out exhibitions or some timepass at Eatopia. I had not visited IHC for last 2.5 years. So I tagged along and the evening turned around great with some ad-hoc things we did and we didn't that hot, as we usually feel while sitting in air-conditioned rooms. This Blog shares about what we did and what anyone can plan even during summer evenings in Delhi.
Reaching IHC from our house is super convenient unless Google-maps mess with plans :). We took Noida-GreatNoida expressway and through DND, landed to Baba Banda Singh Bahadur bridge which takes you to Lodhi Colony and then India Habitat Center. The road is usually super smooth, although we faced some difficulties due to unexpected reasons.
We were able to reach IHC in time. Vibha moved to her meeting place and I walked around the IHC campus and it was super sad state. Eatopia is closed after Pandemic now, but good part is that The All American Diner is operational. Most of the popular exhibition galleries were empty. There was one show going on by Narayan Sinha. Spent some time there and checked another exhibition of Pichwai Paintings by Vibha Singh, which is on till 29th June'22. After that I stepped out to our default add to have tea and Mathri. Whenever we visit IHC, we don't miss this tea-mathi on back side of the IHC. Now I was not motivated to go back to IHC by looking at it's situation and Vibha was busy for another hour. So I thought of walking around and had heard a lot about Lodhi Art District from friend blogger, Sushmita.
After tea-mathi, I started walking around Lodhi Colony and soon I saw first painted wall and that encouraged me to walk further to explore these street-arts in Delhi. Above photograph shows the painted wall closest to India Habitat Center. Soon I figured out a pattern to walk in this colony to see more of these art-works.
Above photograph is Dharavi’s Flowers by Alaniz and Federica. This artwork is by Alaniz and Federica, who decided to feature a young girl who lives in one of the world’s largest slums, Dharavi in Mumbai. There is a beautiful portrait painted with bunch of flowers and leaves in the bottom part of the wall. This wall is facing a main road with good amount of traffic. If you go to other side of the road and see this artwork again, you get different perspective. Just relook at very first photograph of this blogpost and you will know what I am talking about here.
Above photograph shows wall-art "Impressions of Lodhi" by
Yip Yew Chong. Yip Yew Chong is a Singaporean artist, who found inspiration in Lodhi Colony’s people and their daily life activities and interactively recreated those everyday scenes onto the canvas. There is this sweet shop with Indian slogan "Mithai ki Mithai", and also selling tea with that classic kettle and cutting chay glasses. A cow/bull sitting around the shop and there are garlands, probably from the famous Sai Temple near Lodhi Colony. There are those 2 colourful saaris hanging in a typical style when they are put in balcony for drying after wash. I found this a beautiful depiction of Indian streets.
Above photograph again shows "Impressions of Lodhi" by Yip Yew Chong and it's on left side of the wall. I have few Panoramas of these walls and may be, I will do a separate blogpost with all these panoramas. Anyways, I need to visit Lodhi Colony again to explore more of these wall Arts.
These painted walls of Lodhi colony have been grabbing the eyeballs of Delhites as well as people visited capital city of India. It seems The First Lady of France, Brigitte Macron considered to visit the Lodhi art district in Delhi.
Above photograph shows Wall-art "Terracotta" by
Tellas. Tellas is an Italian artist who painted this masterpiece in Lodhi Colony to represent the importance of human connection to nature. She named it “terra cotta” that translates to “baked earth” in Italian.
With the help of CPWD, NDMC, Swachh Bharat Mission, the residents (RWA) of Lodhi Colony, and Asian Paints, St+Art India partnered with local and international artists to bring the art closer to the public. Now these government-owned buildings in Lodhi Colony are beautifully transformed into creative zone as part of the annual Lodhi Street Art Festival. That’s how India’s first-ever Lodhi Art District was born.
Lodhi Art District has over 54 murals (and counting) that take on versatile themes, from social issues to environmental issues to marginalised and vulnerable communities like LGBTQ to Indian culture and values. Many of them have been inspired by the residents and visitors of the Lodhi Colony. That thoughts makes me feel like visiting this place multiple times to see these art-works for long time and allow my mind to think how an artist must have thought about each theme to put it in visuals. How relevant those topics are for me and if I have to do something like this, what will I think or plan to do.
Above wall shows 'Letters for Lodhi' by Yok and Sheryo. This bright yellow and attractive mural in Lodhi Colony is created by Yok and Sheryo, Singapore based artists. It’s said to be inspired by the colorful designs and slogans on Indian matchboxes. If you see closely, not only Indian colours, the artists have given it a flavour of Singaporean designs. Specially the dragon around the pole, is usually seen in Chinese temples . In India context you may find dragon designs in Monasteries but they look different than what you in see in this wall-art.
Above wall again shows 'Letters for Lodhi' by Yok and Sheryo.
Above photograph shows "Cause and Effect" by
Sam Lo. A Singaporean artist, Sam Lo’s (SKL0) artwork in Lodhi Colony reflects on the idea of freedom and interrelationship using ribbons and sparrows.
I think, I have only seen a small part of Lodhi Art District in Delhi. Supposedly it's located between Khanna Market and Meharchand Market in Lodhi Colony. And Lodhi Art District is India's first ever open-air art district where 25 street artists from India and around the world came together to paint the walls and create these masterpieces of govt houses of Lodhi Colony. Overall vibe of the place has changed a lot. These places always looked special to me because of housing style, green areas, open spaces & ample parking spaces etc.
This project to paint these huge walls of Lodhi Colony was started by St+art India, which is a non-profit organisation and is on a mission to make art accessible to everyone.
There are a bunch of artworks in Lodhi Art District and may need more time to explore them well. Each artwork has a deep thought associated and artists have put in lot of efforts to bring this all together. While I was walking around these streets, I was wondering how these will be maintained going forward. Weather in Delhi impacts these art-works and the age of these buildings is also a reason. I am sure there are specific plans in place but I need to find specific details about the same.
Above photograph is showing a portion of 'Augmented Reality' Wall-art by Eugene Soh. Eugene Soh is an artist from Singapore who portrays a string of augmented reality occurrences in this mural. He painted a surface of Mars and a QR code that when scanned can take you to Mars. Other elements of graffiti include a 3D portray of Mona Lisa and a self-portrait. More than other elements I liked above part of the mural which is somehow showing how this man is being fitted in the space depicted by the base of the wall and top portion of the window.
Above wall-art shows "Mere Rang Mein" by Bond Truluv. This artwork is done by a German artist,
Bond Truluv. This is considered one of the world’s largest mixed reality murals and one of the largest augmented reality murals in India. The mural when seen through an app called VuforiaViewApp magically transforms into 3d. Isn’t it cool? I found these details after I came back and started doing some research about these art-works. That means, I should visit again and check this wall-art with mentioned app.
Above photograph shows a part of "The Tourist" by Avinash and Kamesh. Inspired by the tourists who visit Lodhi Art District to admire and photograph the street art, Avinash and Kamesh depicted the social media and smartphone revolution in their mural. I loved this part of the wall and this looks like a boy is clicking your photograph.
Above photograph shows 'New Delhi' by
Nespoon. Nespoon is a Polish artist who painted the wall you see in above photograph. She says that traditionally and vibrantly dressed women of Lodhi Colony are the inspiration behind her work. I thought a little bit about it and realised it's such an amazing great representation of her inspiration from India fashion/clothing. I also see it also resembling some of the Indian art-forms.
Above photograph shows a part of Wall-Art, "Saath Saath" – a community wall painted by residents of Lodhi Colony themselves. Isn't that awesome. St+art team helped the inhabitants of all ages and backgrounds to create a mural around the issues that matter to them most. An artist, Dattaraj Naik gave a final shape to the artwork. There are different words written in these colorful blocks and all written by residents on the basis of their own beliefs/thoughts.
I kept walking till I received message from Vibha, that she is free now. It was time to head back to IHC as our car was parked there and key was with me. It took 15 minutes to reach back IHC, and that's when I realised that I had come too far while enjoying these wall-arts of Lodhi Colony.
Now I was little hungry after this long walk, so we planned to go to the famous Kutty's to have some south Indian food. This small place is near Jantar Mantar Ground and serves fresh and delicious dosas, idlis, Vadas. There are few small shops close to Kutty's who serve hot/cold beverages, Indian chat options and a naan place. Supposedly this naan place is also very good, so hopefully we will go there for naans as well.
After a delicious meal at Kutty's, we headed back and after a few meters we saw Kerala House on our left. We took a small stop at the canteen which is located on other road which is on backside of the Kerala House. We got some stuff packed for dinner/breakfast.
Post Pandemic, it was first time we left home to go to these places where we used to go frequently. So an evening very well spent after a long time.
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