Terminal art

The works of art at the showpiece T3 terminal have been carefully chosen to evoke the image of India as a secular, multicultural society with a rich heritage of indigenous craft

It is only natural that the owner of a showpiece house should want to do it up with works of art as best he can. So it is with Delhi International Airport Ltd, and T3, the very large, state-of-the-art integrated passenger terminal at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport that the company unveiled in July 2010 to a lot of oohs and aahs. At that time the first thing that caught most eyes was the striking “canyon wall” — an iconic, 100-metre-long by 30 metre-high mural consisting of large copper-coloured metal discs on which are set a series of gigantic, nine-feet-tall sculptures of mudras, or traditional hand gestures. These have now become the definitive image of T3, photographed and reproduced endlessly in the news media. They are what a visitor from abroad sees first as he walks into the city.

In the year-and-a-half since, DIAL, led by GMR, the Hyderabad-based infrastructure company which holds 54 per cent stake in this private-public partnership, has added many more works of art to embellish the 5.4 million sqft area.

Chief among these is a mural by contemporary painter Seema Kohli depicting the myth of Hiranyagarbha or the golden womb; 53 panels covering a 7’ X 800’ wall above the baggage counters by Paresh Maity for a work called “Indian Odyssey”; the “Surya” sculpture by Satish Gupta inspired by the Chola bronzes; and more recently two life-size statues of an elephant and its calf at the departure check-in hall which, says Srilata Ramkumar, general manager in DIAL’s “finishes” department, have become very popular with children who all want to climb over them.

* * *

But DIAL isn’t done yet with adding art-works to T3. The first of these, slated to be up within the next two months, is a Warli art mural along one wall of the international departure pier. The 37 square metre art-work will consist of a stainless-steel sheet laser-cut with Warli motifs and set against a dark background, which will be backlit at night to create a dramatic effect, reveals Ramkumar. “It will be an integration of modern materials and traditional Indian crafts,” says Amit Gulati, founder and director of Incubis, a Delhi-based design and architecture firm.

Incubis and Ladour Associates, a multi-national brand and design consultancy, were engaged by DIAL to devise and implement a conceptual theme to set apart T3 from other “cold and antiseptic” mega-airports. “Expressive India” was the theme they came up with and all the artworks commissioned and selected for the terminal are in keeping with it. For instance, informs Gulati, all the 623 discs on the mudra wall, made of copper-plated aluminium, have been crafted into concave and convex shapes by hand using a method called spinning.

Joining the Warli mural will be two others: one, a 21 sqm, hand-embossed bas relief sculpture in metal featuring the very Indian motif of an entwined peacock and elephant, also along the international departure pier, and the second, a 75 sqm depiction of a regal procession in pink or beige sandstone. Other than these works that draw on the craft traditions of India, there will be some more works by contemporary artists at T3 — such as metal sculptures by Thota Tharrani and a large-scale outdoor work — but Ramkumar refuses to give details saying that negotiations are still on and the plans haven’t been finalised as yet.

Clearly, all the works at the new terminal have been chosen to evoke a strong Indian flavour, not just the India of yore but the progressive modern state which is a haven of many cultures and has a rich base of indigenous craftsmanship. Interestingly, one of the design briefs, says Gulati, was that none of the motifs should pertain to any specific religious motif or identity. “It was the image of a secular country that GMR wanted to project,” says Gulati. “The mudras, for instance, are not specifically religious. They are taken from dance forms and yoga, which is India’s biggest global export”

* * *

“It’s low brow,” feels Srishti Bajaj, a product designer from Delhi who also finds the art at T3 unimaginative and obvious. “It plays up the old image of India and is much too touristy. Why couldn’t we have something more contemporary?” Gulati, of course, is aiming for just this effect. “We needed art that was not high-brow, that would appeal to everybody and resonate with the widest spectrum of people who visit the airport from all over the world.”

The other criticism, of course, is that the T3 does not showcase the best names of modernist Indian art. There is Maity, a mid-career artist who has gained acclaim, but the only other really big name who finds a presence at T3 is MF Husain. There are two works by the Barefoot Painter — one, a painting of Indira Gandhi high up on the wall of the departure check-in hall, and the other, a large work called “Freedom” which comprises 46 murals depicting the fusion of ancient and modern India. This latter painting was made for the older T2 terminal and has only now six-months ago been re-displayed at the arrivals immigration.

Anjolie Ela Menon, another major artist, was reported to be working on a wall installation for T3, but nothing is heard of it yet. (There are also works by Thota Vaikuntam and some rare Jamini Rays, but these are in the luxury lounges, not in the public spaces accessed by everyone.)

This was deliberate strategy, says Gulati. “Despite the most generous of budgets, GMR did not look at A-list artists but only those artists who could offer something that tied in with the ethos that it wanted T3 to project.”