Nek Chand

Nek Chand (born December 15, 1924, Berian Kalan, Tehsil Shakargarh, India, British Empire [now in Punjab province, Pakistan]—died June 12, 2015, Chandigarh, India) was an Indian self-taught artist best known for transforming trash and debris into the Rock Garden of Chandigarh, an assemblage of thousands of sculptures in a forest on the outskirts of Chandigarh, India.

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As an adolescent, Chand left home to live with an uncle and attend high school. Once he graduated, he returned to his family’s village and became a farmer. However, after the partition of India when British rule came to an end in 1947, Chand’s Hindu family was forced to flee their village, which fell within the borders of Muslim Pakistan. In 1955 Chand settled in Chandigarh, the capital of both Punjab and Haryana states. The city was in the process of being rebuilt by Swiss architect Le Corbusier, who had been chosen by the Indian government to design a metropolitan capital from scratch. Chand found a job as a roads inspector in the public works department. Beginning in 1958, in his spare time, Chand started to collect materials for a garden he envisioned building in a forest abutting the city. For 18 years he navigated the city and countryside by bike to find rocks and stones, recycled waste from trash heaps, and debris from the 20 or so small villages that had been leveled to create the new city. In 1965 he began to build the garden and organize the space. Because it was protected public land, designated as a no-building zone by the government, Chand worked illegally, in secret.

In 1972 a government official discovered the project, and, in response to the public outpouring of support for Chand’s garden—at that point covering 12 acres (about 5 hectares)—the government did not destroy it. Instead, it was brought under government supervision, and Chand was hired to oversee the project and given 50 employees to assist in its completion. Although the rock garden opened to the public in 1976, Chand and his staff continued to build and expanded the site to some 30 acres (about 12 hectares).

Each of Chand’s sculptures—the figures, both animal and human, number in the thousands—was created from concrete poured over some form of metal armature, such as a recycled bicycle frame. The figures were then adorned with shards of pottery and porcelain, glass, bottle caps, or any other type of discarded material that offered texture. They stand in stiff postures, and their faces are masklike. Chand situated the figures throughout the garden in neatly arranged groups, with the result that they look somewhat like frozen armies. The garden also includes architectural features, such as plazas, courtyards, archways, a large series of swings meant to be used by visitors, and a stone amphitheatre. The landscaping, lush and complex, includes waterfalls and flowing streams.

Chand and his garden became national treasures. In 1980 he was awarded the Grand Medal of Vermeil from the city of Paris, in 1983 the garden was pictured on an Indian postage stamp, and a year later Chand was presented with India’s Padma Shri award (1984; one of India’s highest civilian awards) for distinguished service in the arts. Chand was also commissioned to create gardens elsewhere, notably the Fantasy Garden at the National Children’s Museum in Washington, D.C. (dismantled in 2004), and continued to be the subject of exhibitions in Europe and the United States.