Kochi : ‘The Seeing Eyes’, a group show comprising the works of art by the students from The Velammal International School, which is part of Velammal Knowledge Park, a leading educational group in Tamil Nadu, began at Hallegua Hall-Palette People Gallery & Artists’ Studio, in Mattancherry (Kochi) on February 28, Tuesday. Author and screenplay writer P F Mathews inaugurated the show. Kerala Lalithakala Akademi Chairman Murali Cheeroth, artists Di Ball, Man Ridley, photographer K R Sunil, Chitravathi Centre for Creativity HoD Biveesh B, Communications Head P Sudhakaran, among others were present.
The works are done by a team of nearly 35 students under the mentorship of Chitravathi Centre for Creativity (CCC), the creative arm of Velammal Knowledge Park. All the works of art on display at ‘The Seeing Eyes’ are done as part of various mentoring programmes to chisel the talent and skill of the students.
An interesting segment of this exhibition is ‘Re-create/Re-Visit a work of Raja Ravi Varma - a modern Indian master painter’, in which they took their photographs in the costumes of the characters in the Ravi Varma paintings. This session was done while the lockdown period was on in the wake of COVID-19 and the students were lonely at home, and this aimed to rejuvenate their creative spirit. The response to the project was astounding, and around 300 students took part in the creative assignment. This assignment introduced the creative world of Ravi Varma to the students, and interestingly, some students even featured themselves as the legendary artist in his royal costume. At the same time, through such creative interventions CCC was able to expand to the household, the creative activities that were so far limited to the classroom, thus making every house an art school, in which the family members are also active participants. As part of this, an online interactive project by art historian Santhosh Kumar Sakhinala was also held for the students, which helped them come closer to the creative world of the great artist. 40 works are on display under this section, which reflect how the children from different cultures look at the works of the great master.
Other works include nearly 100 terracotta works, 20 mono prints, over 125 small watercolor paintings, over 25 wood cuts including some large format works, 60 rope knots, one kirigami and a few large format paintings done by children in groups. The show is open till March 10. Gallery timing from 10.30 am to 6.30 pm.
