The U.S. Consulate in Mumbai, India opened in November 2011 in the Bandra Kurla District. Architectural firm URS designed the building, and it was dedicated by Deputy Secretary of State William Burns. The new facility was designed to incorporate green building techniques and the principles of the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED).
In 2007 FAPE commissioned Lynda Benglis to create a site-specific installation for the atrium of the U.S. Consulate in Mumbai. The sculptures’ shapes are based on figures and were fabricated by the Walla Walla Foundry in Washington state.
U.S. Consul General Paul A. Folmsbee said, “We are honored to have beautiful works by iconic American artist Lynda Benglis in our new U.S. Consulate. Her deep ties to India exemplify the importance and strength of the people-to-people relationships that have propelled our government partnership to its present height. The art welcomes the thousands of Indian citizens that will benefit from the improved services that our larger, new building will allow us to provide. We are grateful to both FAPE and Lynda for making this happen.”
“I first viewed the space of the U.S. Consulate in Mumbai through architectural drawings and, even then, I felt the great enormity of the areas, which I was asked to consider. So, I thought of working with a kind of handwriting that brought the viewer into the space in a meditative way. The density of the surface and the edges of these configurations that are seen on a human scale may suggest islands in nature and images for meditation. The work can be read close up or from a distance. You can see the outline of the images, the movement and gesture. It is work that is meant to evoke a sense of intimacy and is a statement of universal spatial organization. It is my loving gift to the people of India. ”
Lynda Benglis
Pashchim
2010
Bronze
Figure 6: 48 ½ x 102 x 29 ½ inches
Figure 3: 84 x 48 x 32 inches
Figure 5: 89 x 61 x 27 inches
U.S. Consulate in Mumbai, India
C-49, G-Block, Bandra Kurla Complex
Bandra East, Mumbai, 400051
