Gateway to greenery
His dream project of setting up a garden installation in Delhi finally comes true. Artist Alex Davis, director of Delhi-based Indi Store, readies himself to present the aesthetic identity of the world’s fourth largest greenest capital, Delhi, at the CUGS 2012 Delhi, to be hosted at the India International Centre in the capital today.
Titled “Dilli Bagh” project, the overall dimensions of the proposed horticultural installations will be 75 metres tall and 14 metres in diameter with a surface area of 1,600 square cms and 25 floors (equal to the height of Qutub Minar). Each tree will also have planters containing creepers like bougainvillea or bignonia at various levels with built-in irrigation system. It will be positioned prominently at all the entry points of the National Highway into the capital.
It will be set up like a gateway at all the major exits of the city including Rohtak gate, Shimla gate, Jaipur gate, Agra and Meerut gate. The proposal has been with the state government, and under consideration.
The Ashoka tree is his key motif of the installation. “Ashoka has been extensively used in the gardens as well as in miniature paintings. It’s a native tree of India and Sri Lanka and can be seen in the Red Fort, Lodhi Garden, Humayun’s Tomb and other historical monuments as a traditional Indian tree. The stylised version of the tree is widely seen in traditional Indian textiles and other forms of arts and crafts,” he says.
Talking about his inspiration for the project, Alex says, “Dilli is the original garden city in its various stages of formation. This city contained some of the most celebrated char baghs and gardens like Mehtab Bagh, Hayat Bakshi Bagh, Tees Hazari Bagh, Begum Bagh etc, which were hallmarked as some of the world’s best Mughul gardens of its times. These installations are symbolic of gateways. In every garden, old cities or forts, there are gateways that represent the boundaries of the area. These installations will be set at the main gateways of Delhi, where the whole city is represented as a garden.”
He further adds, “Also, we don’t have any public art installation in the city. These are my efforts to the spread the message of green Delhi among the people of the city.”
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