Delhi Gate and Sabeel Walli Galli
One Thousand and One Flowers | Naveen Syed
Materials: Marigold and Roses
This floral installation at the Delhi Gate is inspired by the magnificent royal gardens, a number of which grace Lahore and contributed to its title of the ‘City of Gardens’. The importance of gardens and flowers in Mughal culture went far beyond their creation of well-known dynastic monuments such as the Shalimar Bagh. The well-tended formal garden or chahar bagh served as one of the central metaphors of the Mughal state, exemplifying how well-ordered, beautiful, and prosperous the empire was as a whole. Horticultural and floral references abound in Mughal literature. Take for instance, the Chahār Chaman, a Persian memoir of the reign of Shah Jahan by the Lahori Mughal official and renowned poet Chandar Bhan ‘Brahman’ (d. 1662). Tellingly, Chandar Bhan began his administrative career working for Lahore’s superintendent of buildings Mir ‘Abd al-Karim, who later oversaw construction of the Taj Mahal, and he eventually retired as caretaker of the garden tomb of Emperor Jahangir. The Sialkot-born Mughal courtier and author Anand Ram ‘Mukhlis’ (1699-1750) discusses plants and his own passion for horticulture extensively in his dictionary Mir’at al-istilah, repeatedly noting when a flower or fruit, such as a double-flowered nargis or a fine pineapple, was especially worthy of being given as a formal present. Similarly, the Mirzanamah, a mid-seventeenth-century treatise on how to be a proper aristocratic gentleman, advises that a true mirza naturally appreciates flower gardens and should lay them out wherever possible; that a house without potted plants and vases filled with seasonal bouquets is a house without joy; and that a mirza should be interested in unusual and multicoloured flowers.
Flowers and fruits feature prominently in the frescoes of the Wazir Khan Masjid; the ornate mosque commissioned by the Emperor Shah Jahan in 1634 CE. Beareded irises, roses, tulips and marigolds are some of flowers that embelish the walls of the masjid. As markers of status and cultural sophistication, they came to be reflected in every facet of Mughal artistic production, from literature to painting, fabrics to metalwork; florals were the ultimate hallmark of an empire envisioned as a garden of eternal spring.
With thanks to Nicolas Roth who is completing a PhD in South Asian Studies at Harvard University, with a dissertation on the role of gardens and garden writing in the social and intellectual life of the Mughal South Asia
Fresco | Asa Calow (MadLab)
Materials: Unity Games Engine, Oculus Rift VR, Projection
Fresco is an electronic study in ‘truthlikeness’; it is an exploration of the space(s) between representation and reality, using the digital materials of VR—the Unity games engine and Oculus Rift headset, high-definition 3D photogrammetry, complex mathematical systems—to create a fictional, immersive ‘land art’ landscape with its own unique sense of place unconstrained by the realities of the natural world.
Fresco 01 takes as its starting point the rich profusion of tiled frescoes, floral motifs, and nature-inspired geometries of the Wazir Khan Mosque—but journeys to a new ‘elsewhere’, transporting the viewer far beyond the immediate reality of the Walled City.
The Measure of All Things | Dan Hett
Materials: Projection and software
This bold digital piece fuses a study of authentic Islamic geometric design patterns with cutting-edge algorithmic generation, to create a compelling large-scale interactive artwork. Inspired by the incredible centuries-old ingenuity that underpins Islamic geometric forms, the artist has set out to create a rich engaging work that allows the viewer to explore and examine the construction process and creation of hundreds of traditional geometric forms. The work tracks the hands and bodies of the viewers, allowing them to move up and down the timeline of creation: from the first tentative pencil strokes, through to the final tessellated design, mirroring those found in Islamic architecture and design. The designs are fleeting, fluctuating, and ever-changing based on the presence of the audience: traditional geometric forms presented through cutting-edge interactive software, projected beautifully at scale in Lahore.
TRAVERSAL | Asa Calow and Dan Hett
Materials: Projection and software
TRAVERSAL brings symbolic flowing water into unexpected spaces, through the use of innovative fluid simulation technology and projection mapping. A collaboration between visiting artists Asa Calow and Dan Hett, TRAVERSAL uses creative projection and cutting-edge depth cameras to render realistic and interactive water in unexpected ways and spaces, and allow deep and accurate interactivity with it. Water flows harmoniously, reacting to both the physical space and the presence and movement of those who pass through it: those that walk through it leave a trail in their wake as they pass.
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