Student artists narrate reflective stories

Living in the bustling suburbs of Purasawalkam, 21-year-old Dorthy Agnes gets greeted by street vendors and vegetable sellers each morning on her way to college. A fourth year undergraduate student pursuing Bachelors in Visual Arts from Stella Maris College, Dorthy’s art holds a mirror to the vibrant streets of Chennai. 

Turning her picturesque captures of the city’s marketplaces into digital art, which is then printed out on fabric, she transforms tote bags, wallets and pouches to tell colourful stories from rustic streets.

Through a public art show named “Montage” held over the weekend at Anna Nagar’s Spaces @ i13, about 60 final year undergraduate art students from Stella Maris College like Dorthy, narrated compelling stories from across the city and reflected upon life through their artworks in textile, photography, installations and doodles.

 “I find it fascinating to see what vegetables and fruit are growing locally and watching the farmers and vendors gather in the markets and interact with buyers and fellow vendors. The pictures I have captured from these markets offer a way to discover culture, history and the everyday life of the locals,” Dorthy said about her line of handmade bags featuring colourful sections of the city.

Among the plethora of art forms on display at the show included an impressive array of digital paintings, illustrations, installations, clothing lines ideated, designed and curated by students, merchandise and accessories using various art techniques. The installations threw light on subjects like the “burden” of having to portray “perfect” lives for social media and on mental health.

Pairing her art with audio tools, one of the students, Durga Devi, portrayed the issues of depression, dissociative identity disorder, taking visitors into the minds of those battling mental health issues.

As a Bharatanatyam dancer since childhood, 22-year-old Krutika Raju’s installation depicted metal bells inside a ghunghroo (salangai or musical anklets) on the roof and sang classical music soon as a viewer stepped close to it.  “Being a dancer, it gives me joy to be able to show the world what it is like in my head. The installation focuses on the music and importance of salangai and its divinity to a dancer,” Krutika elaborated.

The show, which was part of the final academic project for these young students, also helped in receiving public feedback to their work as soon-to-be-professionals, their faculty noted. “The art show was the result of intense work over four months. The idea behind each of the artworks was important, even if it was original or influenced by other established artists. The students had to demonstrate their skills by working on the idea, with the help of mentors,”  the college’s Fine Arts Department head Sumithra Dawson told DT Next.

The art show also gave a platform for the students to make an extensive portfolio of their skills before stepping into the world of professional artists, she remarked.