Juggling junk to conjure art from waste

Artists in the city work to convert nuts and bolts, engines, used ceiling fans, truck chassis into art as part of the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav Park at ITO, which will be Delhi’s third waste-to-art park

- Paras Singh

NEW DELHI: Eyes covered with black protective goggles, hands stained with gypsum, 35-year-old artist Mrunal Kahar scavenges through the heap of scrap looking for parts of an automotive engine that has been rusting for years. Returning from the carefully gathered metal fragments at a scrapyard, which doubles as a workshop, he also picks up old pipes. Mrunal is recreating a Colt Model 1903 pocket pistol-the gun that was used by Indian revolutionary Chandrashekhar Azad - which will be a part of a life-sized metal sculpture of the freedom fighter.

Located behind the quaint, 5-acre Waste to Wonder Park at Rajiv Gandhi Smriti Van near Sarai Kale Khan, the municipal workshop is buzzing with activity. Heaps of nut and bolts, engines, used ceiling fans, truck chassis and moulds lie spread across tin sheds even as dozens of artists such as Mrunal mould them into sculptures of leaders of the Indian freedom struggle.

The Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav Park at ITO will be Delhi's third waste-to-art park-a theme first implemented at the Waste to Wonder Park in 2019, which features the Seven Wonders of the world. The second facility, Bharat Darshan Park, opened in 2021, and features replicas of 21 monuments from across India, all created using metal scraps.

At the municipal workshop, welder Afroz Khan says nothing goes to waste. Teams of artists and welders are making the waistcoat of the Sardar Patel sculpture using bicycle chains welded on top of each other, while hundreds of nuts. welded together form the torso of the Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar statue, which is covered by a coat modelled from waste metallic sign boards.

Khan and Mrunal are among more than 20 artists and 120 welders who are fashioning various chapters and leaders of the India's independence movement for the project that has been going on for the past eight months.