When visitors enter the new United States consulate, scheduled to open later this year, at Bandra-Kurla Complex, they will be engaged by a series of sculptures that will stretch along the atrium and waiting area.
Currently under installation, the 14 configurations of shapes and figures donated by leading American artist Lynda Benglis are meant to promote a contemplative state in those who walk into the otherwise staid world of diplomats and embassies.
On Thursday, the United States Consul General Paul Folmsbee held a reception at the old consulate at Breach Candy to thank Benglis for her gift.
Benglis, an award winning artist who has exhibited her work at places like the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, The Guggenheim Museum and the The Museum of Modern Art in New York said that the art was her ‘loving gift to the people of India’.
Benglis who is based in New York City and Santa Fe, New Mexico is a regular visitor to India. She said that Mumbai fascinated her because it is constantly evolving. “It is one of the most exciting cities in the world and has continuously changing landscape. Its culture is tremendously layered,” she said.
The sculptures that are part of the installation range in sizes from 36 to 100 inches and consist of spheres and egg-shaped sculptures that suggests islands and other earth forms.
The Benglis donation has been facilitated by The Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies, a non-profit Washington DC-based group that helps American embassies across the world to acquire pieces of art, or as Folmsbee said ‘help dull diplomats get cool stuff to the consulates’.
So far FAPE has helped donations include works by more than 208 preeminent American artists placed in more than 140 countries.
