Too often, the problem with public art is that it goes largely unnoticed—blending into the background like just another example of corporate architecture.  This August in Delhi, however, the hotly contested steel “Sprouts” that speckle the AIIMS flyover “garden” have received the opposite critique.  Drivers, apparently, can’t keep they’re eyes off them.  

This 3-crore public art initiative was designed by N.I.D.’s Vibhor Sognani as a metaphor for “emerging” India, on the country’s 60th Independence Day.  Yet what was envisioned as an emblem of progress is now in danger of destruction on accord of it’s “dangerous” potential to distract drivers with the myriad mirrored surfaces of the shiny steel pods.  Plans are underway to either “trim” a few of the shorter sprouts, or disguise the sculptures with live vegetation around the base.  

While I’m not sure how I feel about the “sprouts” as an artistic statement about national growth (or anything else, for that matter), I do enjoy driving by the young couples, gaggles of adolescent boys, and occasional families that share the manicured grass beneath the shiny sculptures.  Who would believe that a public art project in the middle of wide lanes of rushing traffic would provide so many tranquil dusk hours to young Delhites?  While I’m still not sure how people actually make it into the park without meeting their end beneath a speeding Maruti 800, I hope there are people—and pods— beneath the AIIMS flyover for many years of India’s future growth.

-- Sophia Powers, Artslant International Editior, India