Delhi’s tiger safari

In an effort to save the tiger, 58 renowned artistes recently came together in Delhi to work on life-size fiberglass tigers, no wonder the name of the project then – Artiger.
We asked Swapan Seth, one of the three organisers, about the concept. “The idea is a stolen one,” he joked and added, “Actually, we were inspired by the London Elephant Parade and thought why not do something similar for tigers in India.When we started, we were told that it would be very difficult to get artistes to work on these tigers, but our experience was different. All the artistes readily agreed to be a part of this cause.” Nandita Baig and Aparajita Jain were the co-organisers and were spotted speaking to the guests at this do.
At this brunch held on a sunny Sunday afternoon, 57 art tiger sculptures were allotted to the 56 participating corporates, to be displayed at 52 public locations. Anjolie Ela Menon’s tiger wasn’t allotted in the draw as it had already been selected to be presented to the Gandhi family. The allotment was on a random basis, where two chits were pulled out together – one from a box with the names of the artistes, and the second from a box containing the names of the participating corporates. The funds raised from the corporates will be donated to the Ranthambore Foundation for tiger conservation. All 58 tigers will be displayed at Rashtrapati Bhawan till December 27 after which, they’ll be placed at various public locations across the city for three months.
This public art initiative was attended by the who’s who of the city, including Priyanka Gandhi and Robert Vadra. Namrata Joshipura and Neera Nath told us that Rekha Rodwitya’s art tiger was their fave, while Kalyani Chawla wished for a more colourful tiger for herself and said she was in love with Trishla Jain’s art tiger. “I like the concept of having all animals on the tiger’s back other than the colours,” she said.
Samar Jodha, whose tiger was done up in red and had hand prints all over it, also created an audio to go with it. Why the hands, we asked him. “These are the hands of the poachers,” he replied. While the guests heartily appreciated the initiative, it was best summed up in Swapan’s words. He said, “May the talent of artistes continue to build what our collective selfishness has destroyed.”