Since discovering seditious elements in everyday life is en vogue this week, I’d like to join the bandwagon of the righteously outraged. Because, friends, Mumbaikars and expats, there’s only so long that one can mutely tolerate such blasphemy. We have suffered quietly for years, but let us now speak out against the gross elements that by visible representation attempt to inspire contempt and excite disaffection towards all that we see before us.
I’m talking about the public art in Mumbai. For a city that boasts of being India’s cultural capital, Mumbai has some of the most hideous public art that anyone has ever had the misfortune of beholding. Occasionally, the city’s truly talented artists make valiant efforts to redress this situation, like the charming graffiti by Bollywood Art Project or “I Live Under Your Sky Too”, the temporary light installation that Shilpa Gupta had put on Carter Road bandstand in 2013. There are a few statues, like the one of RK Laxman’s Common Man on Worli seaface, that may inspire a fond smile. But these few examples are fighting a losing battle.
Not that anyone would guess, but the public art in Mumbai is part of BMC’s efforts to beautify the city. The municipal corporation encourages private companies to ‘adopt’ spots, like the ‘garden’ near a traffic signal. Some adopters choose to install a work of art upon their acquisition. It’s not a bad idea. In fact, it’s a very good one at a conceptual level.
Unfortunately, in practice, it means that when you’re in Nariman Point, you’re faced with a gigantic, ugly, red baby’s head sprouting out of the green grass. Had this sculpture by Chintan Upadhyay been there in 2008, the Oberoi may not have been among the targeted buildings of the 26/11 terror attacks. It’s easy to imagine the terrorists seeing that sculpture, yelping in distress and turning tail.
Not as ugly, but still strikingly weird, is Arzan Khambatta’s attempt at sculpting metallic dolphins, in Worli. That said, Khambatta’s work is actually less of an eyesore than Rouble Nagi’s brightly-coloured alien flowers, also in Worli. And who can forget the ineffable ‘Child Gives Birth To A Mother’ at Mahim Causeway? Aside from its title being biologically impossible and technically incorrect, it is just awe-inspiringly bad as art. Unsurprisingly, the artist has chosen to not let his name be known to the public.
Thanks to the Make in India jamboree, public art has mushroomed all over the city over the past few weeks. These include sculptures of one gigantic man wearing a tie and carrying a laptop bag, 16 lions and 21 outsized lamps. They are all, without exception, terrible. As far as I’m concerned, they’re just downright provocative. Since their awfulness fills the sensitive viewer with disgust that will naturally be directed at Make in India, a government campaign, this makes the public art practically seditious. They most certainly excite hatred (for those who are responsible for these artworks being showcased) and contempt (for those who made the sculptures). I’m surprised these new additions to the cityscape haven’t pushed those who have to see them on a daily basis to violence.
Less facetiously, the fact that we’re surrounding ourselves with ugliness is not a trivial matter. Once upon a time, Mumbai was a city that inspired artists and dreamers. It wasn’t conventionally pretty, but its architecture, energy, lights and modernity were exhilarating.
After the recent construction boom and with all these artistic additions to the cityscape, you’ve got to wonder what is being imprinted upon the imagination that is nurtured in Mumbai. When beautifying the city means dressing CST in gaudy colours and terrible sculptures, what can we really expect of the art that is birthed in this city?
The writer is a critic and author. She lives in Mumbai and can be found lurking in galleries
