Artworks at Metro Station: Jor Bagh and Mandi House

In a first-of-its-kind initiative of taking art to the public, India Habitat Centre is displaying art at two metro stations in New Delhi at Jor Bagh Station and Mandi House station starting January 15, 2015. Titled The Habitat Initiative: Art In Public Spaces, the project has been designed in collaboration with Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC). The chosen artworks are displayed on the lightboxes installed at the metro stations, which will change every three months. Moreover, the explanatory text displayed alongside are bilingual in English and Hindi.

From January till March 2015, at the Jor Bagh metro station, photographs from the exhibition, “The Long Exposure at Udaipur, 1857-1957”, would be displayed on three lightboxes. 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-colourd photographs and the portraits shown are of 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 asearly 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 in 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, at the Mandi House station, photographs on Holi by Tarun Chhabra are displayed on two lightboxes. Says the photographer, “I like to celebrate people, places and culture through my photography. My choice of subject comes from a place of intuition and is fuelled by an impetuous desire to partake in the stories that unfold around me. My pictures are a reflection of different facets of my own personality.... earthy, bright, happy as well as sad, realistic. I see beauty and I see reality. I see celebration and solemnity. They are sights that stir me, affect me and inspire me.”

The India Habitat Centre's Art initiative is called 'Art in Public Spaces' at the Delhi Metro Stations.

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Dr Alka Pande,
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Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre,
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