Archiving Nek Chand’s Office
During their spring 2013 visit, Nek Chand Foundation volunteers Alan Ceserano and Jan Lewin began vital work on archiving materials in Nek Chand’s Rock Garden office.
The cave-like chamber with its curved ceiling of pebbles set in concrete is home to a rich legacy of papers and objects related to Nek Chand’s creations and history. It is where Nek Chand has worked and received visitors – many bearing gifts – every day since 1978.
Previously no systematic attempt has been made to order the office. Objects include thousands of documents, photographs, awards, architectural drawings, and models, as well as electrical goods, fabric, tools, medicines, and gifted food items.
Ceserano and Lewin categorized, documented and protected a huge volume of valuable artefacts, spending hours at a makeshift photography studio set up in the small courtyard outside Mr Chand’s office. Objects were then stored in labelled boxes.
Many papers provide priceless insight into Nek Chand’s creative process and into the overall design of his living kingdom – the Rock Garden.
The archival work continues.