Myriad art forms transform rain shelter at Sarai Kale Khan
INITIATIVE Acclaimed Polish street artist Agata Oleksiak has worked for days to drape a rain shelter for the poor with crocheted fabric in public art effort
NEW DELHI: Art is the last thing one expects to find at the bustling Sarai Kale Khan Bus stop teeming with cars and buses and dusty tired faces. But an initiative from St+art Delhi with a little help from internationally acclaimed Polish street artist Agata Oleksiak, changed that perception on Tuesday.
The south Delhi area can now boast of having the best looking shelter in Delhi.
Agata, who uses the name Olek, has been invited by Art Basel in Miami, by the Brooklyn Museum in New York and The Smithsonian in Washington DC to exhibit her work. Internationally, she has displayed her art work in Berlin, Poland and now she has come to Delhi.
As part of the Street Art festival in Delhi, she has worked tirelessly for the past three week preparing the 40ft long and 8ft high ‘Raine Basera’ (rain shelter) near the Sarai Kale Khan bus stop. Most of the 90 km of yarn, fabric and cloth used in her work was sourced from Old Delhi and women self help groups in the city. Designers Manish Arora and Tarun Tahiliani chipped in by donating their waste material. She has hand-stitched together all the pieces with the help of volunteers in a South Extension studio. She has cleverly used yellows, purples, pinks and blues to make a statement for the poor of Delhi.
Olek has converted a blue rain basera into public art. “Art should be for everybody and not the rich only. I have tried my best to reflect the symbols of the people of India in my art,” Olek says talking about her kaleidoscopic designs.
Not uncomfortable with the hundreds of onlookers or her carefully draped red sari, she worked round-the-clock for two days to give a final form to her work. “I love India and the energy of the place. The crowds in fact give me the energy to work better,” she said.
“People of Delhi have inspired me to create this. The elephant is one symbol I closely associate with the people here and in fact I have seen one while I was in Delhi,” she adds.
She finished her first work in Delhi entitled ‘You must believe that you have received’ on Tuesday. Olek hopes to focus the attention of the society at large on the poorer sections of society. “No one really pays attention to such shelters. With my work now, I hope people will come to see and stay in the most beautiful shelter in the world,” Olek said.