ART THAT INSTILLS HOPE FOR HAPPY JOURNEY
Five sculptures by artist Paresh Maity will welcome travellers at the newly expanded premises of Terminal 1 of Delhi’s IGI Airport
Sound of Silence is the name of this sculpture, made using 4,000 brass bells, which now stands tall at the recently inaugurated expanded section of T1, Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport. Soon the commotion of travellers will fill this space, but even then, this artwork will be a testimony to India’s cultural heritage as the bells depict “auspicious significance of peace and contemplation”.
This is just one of the five major sculptural installations by artist Paresh Maity that have “found home” at the Delhi airport. These include a pair of white elephants called Life’s Journey, crafted using oil and acrylic, 7x9.25x2.75 feet (each), and encapsulate a gamut of human emotions: “love, harmony, happiness and closeness,” informs Maity.
And then there’s Sanyog, a pair of sculptures exuding Maity’s peculiar style of crafting human heads. Depicting “human faces, birds and geometric figures, among other motifs”, this is made using fibreglass. These two installations have the India Gate and other iconic monuments painted on them. “All these sculptures were with me for a long time,” shares Maity, adding, “They feature important monuments of Delhi, including the Qutub Minar and the Lotus Temple... Delhi is the Capital and a gateway to India. The world has seven wonders; Delhi has 700! I wanted to show the beauty of India, and I’m happy that these works have found a home in a public place. Every civilisation, starting with the Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, has always had art at its heart.”
I am a global citizen, but a proud Indian at heart. Seeing my art, now everybody will feel the joy and happiness. PARESH MAITY, Artist