Chennai: Bookmarking a beautiful city – The New Indian Express

Express News Service

CHENNAI:  A for Armenian Church, B for Binny Mills, C for Chepauk Palace…W for Weasley Church…Y for YMCA building… Earlier in May, when city-based artist Mahalakshmi Somasundar began creating Madras-themed renditions as part of the 36 Days of Type initiative, a project that invites designers, illustrators, and graphic artists to express their particular interpretation of the letters and numbers of the Latin alphabet, little did she know that the curation will be the first of many Madras-inspired artworks to come. “I have always been fascinated by Chennai. But, only when I had the opportunity to visit various pockets of the city as part of a city-centric course in college did I realise how little I knew about the city. Besides this, I also interned with a heritage collective here and that further contributed to spurring my interest,” shares the architecture graduate from Anna University.

When the 2021 edition of the 36 Days of Type project was announced, Mahalakshmi decided to pick one heritage structure in the city per alphabet, sketch it and also share interesting trivia about it on her social media page. “I worked on this from May to June and even went on to create a consolidated poster. This process continued in July. During the entire period, the idea to create something unique for the Madras month and to commemorate the founding day of the city kept simmering in my mind. I am a voracious reader and a book lover. Sometimes, my heart breaks when I see a dog-eared page or a folded spine. So, I decided to combine my love for Madras and books and the idea to create bookmarks based on this glorious city came about,” she narrates.

Putting her thought to action, Mahalakshmi created a set of six stunning bookmarks featuring the Victoria Public Hall, Ice House, Bharat Insurance building, Mylapore, the Zoo and Senate House. “Each bookmark has an old photo of the landmarks and a fact about the place too. I create artworks only after I do thorough research about the place. I have gained knowledge about the city and its heritage and this has made me think about taking up heritage architectural conservation as my discipline,” shares the creative, whose bookmarks are on sale.

She has embarked on a new journey, creating watercolour artworks titled Madras in Movies. The paintings are recreations of film frames featuring heritage structures. The now razed down Pilot theatre in the background of a song from Vaaranam Aayiram (2008), Luz House from OK Kanmani (2015), the PWD building in Vikram Vedha (2017), are some of her initial artworks. “The idea is to bring the places in the background to the fore and share stories and facts about them. The celluloid captures places forever, giving us glimpses of structures that don’t exist anymore. It’s been an interesting work in progress,” she elaborates.

Mahalakshmi proposes that people need to start seeing the city and its heritage from various perspectives because there’s always something new to be found. “There is a saying, ‘Thangatha thedi, vairatha tholaikarom’ (In search of gold, we lose diamonds). I get that very feeling when it comes to Madras. This city is replete with history and heritage but we always tend to focus on other places for inspiration and knowledge. I think we need to look at what we have first and bring its resplendence to the fore,” she insists.

Printed on 300 GSM glossy stock, the bookmarks can be bought as single, packs of three or six. Priced at Rs 120 (Single), Rs 350 (Pack of 3) and Rs 700 (pack of 6); Shipping charges apply. For details, visit Instagram page @Mahaxarts