Artists, poets collaborate to celebrate the birth of madras

In the project titled #31dayofmadrasinpired, two poets and two artists will be collaborating on generally missed out aspects of Madras and put it out as art and poetry. The participants are Srishti Prabakar, Smruthi Badri, Arivukkarasi Manivannan and Prathyaksha Prasad.

 “Madras Inspired Hues is a 31 days series this Madras month, where I will be exploring one colour a day. The city has a myriad of hues to offer and I will be sharing stories, talking about objects and recollect our associations with the colour of the day and the city. For example, on day 2, we selected red colour. When we think of red, some of the things that come to our minds are molaga podi (chilli powder, referred to as red powder in cookbooks from the colonial era), the kavi from the kolams, red post boxes, deep rich red sarees, and the superfluous presence of the colour in the city’s transport right from the time of trams. How this works is, daily we will select one colour and I will go live with Nam Veedu, Nam Oor, Nam Kadhai and Thirupurasundari Sevvel from the initiative will be discussing different objects related to that particular colour and I will be painting simultaneously. At the end of 31 days, we will have a unique colour palette for the city and will understand how we connect these colours,” says Srishti. 

The team is not only looking at generic colours but at colours like brick red, Oleander (arali flower) pink and so on. “People can give colour suggestions and how they associate it with the city.”

 Another participant in this tribute series is the final B Arch student at SAP, Anna University, Arivukkarasi. She pens Tamil poems as a tribute to Madras. “My friend GS Mohan has taken a lot of photographs that relate to people, places (important landmarks) and events (that capture the essence of the city). We have chosen 31 photographs and according to the mood of each image, I pen Tamil poems and share it on social media,” says Arivukkarasi.