Guest artist talk at College of Art, Delhi

Today, I gave a talk at the College of Art, part of the Govt. of NCT of Delhi, after the generous invitation of Professor Jyotika Sehgal. It was a pleasure to share my past work and the on-going project on the Grand Trunk Road with students and faculty. As I announced, I am looking for students to do a paid internship with me. It would be a mentorship experience, where the student would assist in my work as well as create his or her own project.

Please contact me via email at gregorythielker@gmail.com with interest.

Beginning with the Grand Trunk Road

This week, I began my on-site work on the Grand Trunk Road. For this project, I will create a series of paintings along the overlap of the ancient Grant Trunk Road and modern Golden Quadrilateral Highway between Delhi and Kolkata. These images will represent the landscape now, as well as what remains from the past. The project will involve paintings done at regular intervals along the roadway. Narratives collected from locals and travelers will accompany the images to give a sense of how people experience this road in the present day.

Old iron bridge, Delhi side of the Yamuna River.

While National Highway 2 has become the defacto route southeast from Delhi, actually the GTR runs along NH 91 as it leaves the city. From the very start, it was obvious that this roadway has been in use for a long time. Here we can see the old iron bridge that crosses the Yamuna River. As my father-in-law observed, its like the George Washington Bridge because it has two levels, only instead of an upper & lower level for cars and buses, here the upper level is for trains, and the lower level is for cars, auto rickshaws, bicycle rickshaws, pedestrians, motorbikes, cows, etc. The riverbed is currently being used as a rickshaw depot and on the other side, as a site for digging out mounds of sand to be used in construction throughout Delhi.

The road is in poor shape, with large potholes requiring slalom style driving.


















At 76 km from Delhi. Here a temple seen on the right is being used as a police station and road block between Machkauli and Jalkhera.
















At 152 km. A bridge crosses the river adjacent to a small marketplace in Nanau.

Internet image flurry

A number of websites have recently posted images of my work and links to my website. I am amazed (and flattered) that the images spread so quickly and that much overlap exists between websites that feature popular culture, news reporting, and fine art. I've posted a few examples here, but as a google search reveals, there are many more.

Post on The Independent.













Post on Gawker.

Post on La Repubblica.

Arrival in India

I arrived in India in mid September to begin a year-long project that will chronicle the Grand Trunk Road (an ancient trade route similar to the Silk Road) as it exists today through paintings and audio interviews. It's already proving to be quite an adventure, as I came to Delhi with my family as well.

Here, I feel as though the roads change constantly- both because of the human traffic as well as the infrastructure updates. As one might imagine, there are positives and negatives to these shifts. I want to show how this is affecting the communities and individuals along this major route between Delhi and Kolkatta.

I'm grateful to the Council for International Exchange of Scholars and the United States India Educational Foundation for making this project possible through a Fulbright-Nehru grant, and for Sanskriti Kendra for the residency fellowship where I have my studio.

Please check back for more updates.