Manpriya Singh

Art has always made its presence felt outside the creative circles, art galleries and framed canvases. Art around us in our daily lives, unfortunately, has only been recognised and seldom celebrated; unless someone decides to shed light on some of the major art movements, evolution of art in architecture, contemporary artists and architects. Kerala-born and Mumbai-based artist and independent curator Bose Krishnamachari had a similar purpose in mind. On the invitation of Chandigarh Lalit Kala Akademi, his slide show and audio visual presentation -Art, Architecture and Parallels- examines the fascinating overlap of art, architecture, design, fashion, nature and life. What better place than the city of Le Corbusier to put across the point in question? "The city I\'d heard a lot about and especially the Rock Garden."
Art touches upon all the fields that form a part of our everyday lives. It\'s a fact he grew up with. "I come from a culturally and creatively inclined family from Kerala, a family of carpenters," he takes to the stage, gives the backgrounder as to how art happened, at the same time, "thanking the audience for music," in the form of ringing mobiles.
Having held several solo exhibitions, still the work takes precedence and not the artist! He speaks about only other artists to be able to shuttle between the fields of art, fashion, architecture and nature; starting from the pleats of Kathakali costumes to make-up in Mohiniattam performers - each demonstrating perfect examples of line, colour, form and textures.
Ideas rule
Moving on to John Knutch, who used over 2,50,000 houseflies to arrive at his abstract paintings. "That\'s again a perfect example of how ideas and processes become art." It\'s a free flow of work by artists, architects, fashion designers and how they together influence each other. Be it the Beijing National Stadium, inspired by a bird\'s nest to a Balenciaga outfit inspired by Guggenheim, or Alexander McQueen outfit inspired by Sydney Opera House. He slides over to a couple of Hindi idioms written in the language. "I\'m not saying these phrases because I don\'t want to make you laugh." There are bus stops in Indonesia that are a living instance of the transformation that art and architecture can bring about in our daily lives.
Spare a thought
There is no discussion ever complete without the mention of Le Corbusier and his works. "I didn\'t prepare this talk especially for Chandigarh. I\'ve been talking about him and his works all along." The architect whose city is a living proof of what good design can do. "There is still a lot of greenery one can find in Chandigarh, courtesy him, which is not the case with several other Indian cities." Then there are some recent, unfortunate developments. "Chandigarh Legislative Assembly, one of the perfect instances of Le Corbusier\'s design philosophy, has been in a sorry state of affairs. The air-conditioners and wiring have become a part of the building, which is pathetic. There must be a way to work out things and we must preserve our buildings." The local bodies could have done better and is the administration listening?
manpriya@tribunemail.com