A public artwork on the cricket icon by Worli artist Jaideep Mehrotra, commissioned by industrialist and art patron Harsh Goenka’s RPG Art Foundation, has lost its display spot for the third time in two years. After resistance from Bandraiites to its installation, RPG is looking for another 'home'
Jaideep Mehrotra and former cricketer Dilip Vengsarkar during the artwork’s unveiling at Sasmira junction, Worli, in June 2014. Pic/Suresh Karkera
Sachin Tendulkar has no home. A public artwork on the cricket icon by Worli artist Jaideep Mehrotra, commissioned by industrialist and art patron Harsh Goenka’s RPG Art Foundation, has lost its display spot for the third time in two years. After resistance from Bandraiites to its installation, RPG is looking for another ‘home’.
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Jaideep Mehrotra (left) and Dilip Vengsarkar unveil the artwork at Sasmira junction, Worli
The art installation, titled Between the Lines — an ode to Mumbai’s 'unique ethos and culture' and not just the Master Blaster — was earlier shunted out of Worli and the Marine Drive promenade.
The artwork is removed from Marine Drive. PIC/Suresh Karkera
Unveiled at a traffic island in 2014 near Sasmira Institute in Worli, Tendulkar had a short stay at the crease there owing to lease issues. He was moved to the Marine Drive promenade last year. That venue, too, turned out to be temporary. Some citizens’ groups, led by the Nariman Point Churchgate Residents Association, objected to the installation on the grounds that it blocked the promenade. The sculpture again changed address in June this year, with RPG settling for the Carter Road promenade — a stone's throw from Tendulkar’s Perry Cross Road residence — subject to the BMC and the Maharashtra Maritime Board’s permissions.
The spot on the Carter Road promenade where the artwork was proposed to be installed. PIC/Shadab Khan
A la Carter
Even as the go-ahead came through, another resistance began brewing. The Bandra West Residents Association (BWRA) opposed the installation, again on the grounds of the public walkway being eaten up.
In a letter, signed by Darryl D’Monte, president of BWRA, to Sharad Ughade, assistant municipal commissioner of H/West ward, dated October 22, the association made its displeasure in stark, clear-cut terms. “…BWRA does not agree to this proposal and informed you in so many words in the presence of RPG Foundation representatives. Kindly ask them to identify some other area and treat this matter as closed,” stated the letter.
D'Monte told mid-day that the objection is based solely on the lack of space. "Where will people walk? This (the promenade) is a place for people to walk.” He dismissed the rumour that BWRA had asked RPG to pay for maintenance of a part of the promenade where the artwork would be installed. "That is untrue. There is no place."
Relegated to warehouse
Sumeet Chatterjee, senior vice president of RPG Brand & Communications, refrained from commenting on the controversy. He did, however, acknowledge that the installation is lying in RPG’s Worli warehouse, and that the foundation is looking for an alternative site.
Pointing out that the initiative has the BMC's support, he said, "As a patron of the arts, Harsh Goenka wanted his city to be at the forefront of public art in the next decade. The public art corridor is his dream of appreciation for public art and stirring up conversations among locals and visitors. The art foundation invited leading and upcoming artists to design installations that capture Mumbai’s unique ethos and culture."
Keeping the faith
Mehrotra is pained at the treatment meted out to his work. "It has been damaged a little from being uprooted from different locations, but there is nothing that can’t be fixed. When I was commissioned to do it, I wanted it to have suitable exposure to the public and believed that it would add to the aesthetic of the place where was installed."
Although hopeful that his labour of love would find a suitable home, he said such disputes could prove a "dampener for others willing to pursue a public art initiative."
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