Christo Would Be Proud: India’s Accidental Art of Wrapping Temple Cars
If you thought wrapping buildings in fabric was a novel art form pioneered by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, welcome to India, where we’ve been doing this for centuries without fanfare, press releases, or international exhibits. Just a few weeks ago, I was standing in the humble town of Virinjipuram, right in front of an ancient Shiva temple, when I stumbled upon a rather "artistic" sight: a temple car covered head to toe in thick, industrial-strength fabric. No, this wasn’t a new art installation, but an old-school way of keeping dust, sun, and rain from making the wooden cart look like driftwood. Apparently, India’s been on this “wrapping things up” game long before anyone in Berlin or Paris ever thought of putting fabric on famous landmarks. We just call it protection . Christo wrapped the Reichstag in Berlin; here, we wrap temple cars in “Can-We-Make-This-Last-Another-100-Years” fabric. Christo and Jeanne-Claude-Reichtag building unknow artist-Virinjipuram temple car The Subt...