leather tinder pouch JUNK ART GENIUS Following Independence, as refugees flooded across the Pakistan border and a newly l

JUNK ART GENIUS Following Independence, as refugees flooded across the Pakistan border and a newly liberated India made the bold statement that was Chandigarh, one of the new city s road inspectors, a diminutive arrival from Pakistan called Nek Chand, was struck by the amount of waste generated as villages were cleared in the construction of Chandigarh. Chand hauled this matter back to his jungle home and gave it a second life as sculptural material. Eventually he had tens of thousands of forms made of urban and industrial waste, as well as local stone, created by his own hands and the slow forces of nature. His battalions of water women, pipers, chai drinkers, monkeys, cheeky stick men wearing tea-cup hats, dancing leather tinder pouch women and other characters steadily multiplied in secretly sculpted spaces. leather tinder pouch Chand s efforts weren t officially discovered until 15 years after they began, leather tinder pouch when a government survey crew stumbled upon them in 1973. The unauthorised garden was illegally leather tinder pouch occupying government land and should technically have been demolished, but fortunately the local council recognised the garden as a cultural asset. Chand was given 50 labourers and paid a salary so he could devote himself to the project. leather tinder pouch Today, the garden is said to receive over 2000 visitors a day. There s a Nek Chand Foundation (www.nekchand.com), raising funds and recruiting volunteers. Chand had no formal education beyond high school. In my childhood I used to build mud houses and other toys. He is said to be influenced by modernist masters such as Le Corbusier and Gaudi, but he is clear on the main source of his ideas: they are a gift from God.

The ceremony starts leather tinder pouch at around 4.15pm in winter and 5.15pm in summer (but double- check, given that timings vary according to sunset). Cameras are permitted (free) but bags, large and small, are banned (although leather tinder pouch this is haphazardly enforced).