Mosaic Decorative Art in Chandigarh

Mosaic is defined as the art of creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of coloured glass, stone, or other materials. In the early 1960s, a government official from Chandigarh, Mr. Nek Chand Saini redefined the word. What started out as a hobby, gradually developed and grew over several acres and comprised of a series of interlinking courtyards dotted with hundreds of sculptures made up of mosaic art. Although an attempt to beautify his city, this was deemed as an illegal act-a development in a forbidden area which by rights should have been demolished. However the officials took an enlightened decision to commission Mr. Nek Chand to complete his work.

He used urban waste materials like bottles, tin cans, broken plugs, plates, and saucers to create patterns and textures; and mute rocks to create art. These came together to form what is known today as the Rock Garden. The first phase of the Rock Garden was a small canyon. The canyon was divided into chambers, each dotted with human and animal forms in concrete and broken ceramic glass.