CHENNAI: Rupak is autistic by birth and cannot speak, he expresses himself through art. An easel, a painting board and tubs of paint give him the power to overcome his disability. Rupak, who has created more than 150 paintings, was one among the nine artists who exhibited his painting at the ‘Coaches, Contours et Couleurs’ art camp conducted by the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) at the Chennai Rail Museum on Saturday.
Along with paintings, art installations made out of scrap from the factory by seven sculptors were also displayed. The artists who were invited by the ICF were given one month’s time to complete their artwork. “Usually, railways remind people of colourless coaches, sooty engines and mundane surroundings. We wanted to change that perception.
We wanted to display colour and life through these paintings and art installations. This is the seventh camp organised by us,” said Venkatesan, an ICF official. Rupak Manje, who started painting after going for art therapy classes six years ago, displayed an abstract art piece which represented the scenic view from a train’s window. “An art exhibition like this one is a great platform for people like Rupak to express their thoughts. I now understand his strokes and what each colour symbolises after closely observing his technique,” said his father Rajendra Munje, who resides with his family at Kotturpuram.
Another artist Aishwarya Manivannan based her painting to highlight the various layers of work that goes into the manufacturing process of a train. After a visit to the factory, she picked up a few scrap metal pieces and included clusters of it in her painting to represent the cities a train passes through. “My painting had 13 layers to it and many lines to represent the railway network. It took me around 60 hours to finish this piece. This is the second camp I’m participating in and two of my previous paintings are already
on display,” said Aishwarya, a visiting faculty at Loyola College.