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Till July 19: An exhibition of paintings by P. Saraswati, who was drawn to painting through her work with NGOs on innovation and creativity in education. She trained under the late S. Dhanapal, Principal of College of Art, Chennai, for a few years, and since then has been going back and forth between art and education, both of which are integral parts of her life (at Lalit Kala Akademi).
Till July 24: Disappearing Professions in Urban India, photographs by Clare Arni, a Bangalore-based British photographer. As a consequence of the recent economic growth in India, technology, mechanisation and large firms producing cheaper goods are marginalising the specialist, the craftsman and the alternative. Clare Arni has been documenting these disappearing professions in Bangalore, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai during this story of rapid development. She worked at Delhi – those who served the Mughal court, like the attar producer and the miniature artist; Bangalore’s silk trade; Chennai’s shrinking film studios, and in Kolkata – the piano tuner, auctioneer and the Chinese cobbler.
In photographing these professions, she also explored how sometimes the traders have tried to find ways to adapt to survive, like the calligrapher scribing letterheads because computers can’t yet produce Urdu script (at Gallery Sumukha).
Till July 25: A self-taught artist J. Ramesh painted landscapes, portraits and mundane items until he found that wildlife was his subject.
He was honoured by the GREENS, based in Trivandrum, on Earth Day, 2002. He has made more than 300 illustrations of birds for the Indian Institute of Science. He has also done illustrations of elephants for a researched book on The Asiatic Elephant by Dr. Raman Sukumar, Chairman of the Institute of Ecological Sciences. He is also well known as a wildlife photographer (at C.P. Art Centre).
Till July 31: French Furniture inspired by Fashion Com Modes Comme Mode. Furniture and Fashion are subject to the political and social influences of the day. The drawers of la commode (chest of drawers) harbour many an item of clothing and still do today. The container and its contents are compared in these drawings (at Alliance Française).
July 24: Photography exhibition displaying Stefan Koppelkamm’s Ortszeit ‘Local Time Project’ on 30 posters (at Max Muller Bhavan).
July 25: Photography Workshop by Stefan Koppelkamm. The objective of the workshop is to define the subjective and personal criteria that determine the “quality of life” in a city. The focus should therefore be more on the routine and normal, rather than the unusual. The workshop will result in an exhibition at Max Mueller Bhavan (tentatively in the second half of August 2009). Registration details at Max Mueller Bhavan.
August 1 and 2: (Bala Mandir School) and 8 and 9 (Don Bosco’s Anbu Illam):Jeeva Raghunath will teach language skills through stories, drama and songs.
August 3-20: Images of Chennai, an exhibition by young photographers Karthick Ramalingam and Siva Chithirai to celebrate Madras Week (at Alliance Française).
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