First published: Winter 2024/2025
To commemorate the 100th anniversary of Nek Chand’s birth, Raw Vision is proud to publish the story of his monumental creation in his own words
Born on December 15, 1924, Nek Chand Saini grew up in the village of Barian Kalan in, what is now, Pakistan. After being forced to flee his home amidst the horror of the Partition of India, he eventually found work as a road builder, constructing India’s first planned city, Chandigarh. It was there that he began to create a secret garden which eventually became the world’s largest folk-art environment. By the time he died in 2015, Nek Chand was regarded as one of the world ‘s foremost self-taught artists, and his extraordinary 25-acre Rock Garden – with its 2,000 statues, waterfalls and amphitheatres – remains unsurpassed.
In 2011, Candace Wolf, oral historian and storyteller, visited the Rock Garden to record Chand’s testimony. As they walked around the city, crowds gathered to greet the artist with warmth, veneration and jubilation. “It was on that day that I understood that I was in the presence of a genuine folk hero,” says Wolf. Here then is Nek Chand’s story in his own words...
Nek Chand with some of his sculptures, 1993; photo: Rod Waddington Image, courtesy: Nek Chand Foundation
By CANDACE WOLF
This is an article extract; read the full article in Raw Vision 121.
