Long before we took to the written word to express ourselves, we were already telling stories through drawings, carvings, and symbols. Art, in many ways, has a language of its own. This ability to tell different stories while finding a common thread brings the exhibition The Madras Warp together.
The event draws inspiration from the warp, the threads that hold a woven fabric together. It is an apt metaphor for a show that brings together artists working across different media, many of whom have known one another for years. “All the artists have some connection with Madras. Either they work here or have studied here. It is this city that connects us, and we are presenting the medium that we are practising all together,” shares artist and curator of the show, Nivetha Mailasini.
Sixteen contemporary artists from Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Kerala will feature nearly 70 artworks spanning painting, sculpting, photography, printmaking, mixed media, and installation art. The exhibition explores concepts of memory, identity, culture, and place, while allowing each artist the freedom to interpret and express their own ideas.
The artworks carry the artists themselves, their relationships, shared histories, and individual practices that form the foundation of the exhibition. The idea, Nivetha says, emerged organically through conversations with friends, batchmates, and professional acquaintances. What began as a simple thought about putting together an exhibition gradually took shape over six months, informed by the different practices and ideas of the artists involved. Nivetha says, “We’re all connected in a certain way, and we really wanted to attempt a simple and sincere exhibition that lets us express our practices.”
Primarily an artist, Nivetha has a background in fine arts and arts management. Her experience working with exhibition design, archives, and curatorial practices has informed the way she has approached the show. She has put together this exhibition in a way allowing visitors to engage directly with individual bodies of work rather than viewing everything through a single lens.
The works reflect this diversity. Artist Selin Sabashini explores questions of memory and grief; photographer Hemant Kumar’s pictures capture the patterns and structures that shape both the human-made and natural world; and Rishi Sasi’s body of work offers layered observation, reflection, and experience, among the many who are bringing an experiential dimension to the exhibition.
Through installations and sensory elements, the viewing experience becomes more experiential. “We’re all surrounded by a lot of art and design elements that we can’t even eliminate from our lives,” says Nivetha, adding that such everyday observations also play a huge part in the artworks that are on display.
In her own practice, Nivetha has been working with acrylic on canvas — colours such as green and red being more highlighted — mixed media and pen drawings, while experimenting with brass metal sheets and textures. One of her ongoing interests is translating aerial views of Chennai into abstract forms. Roads, buildings, and waterbodies become lines, shapes, and patterns, offering a different way of looking at a familiar city. The process has also led her to consider how landscapes change over time and what those changes reveal about the places we inhabit.
It is this openness to interpretation that the exhibition hopes to extend to its visitors. There is no prescribed way to experience the works, nor is there an expectation that everyone will walk away with the same understanding. “Art is subjective,” says Nivetha.
For a group that came together through the knowing, the exhibition is creating a space for different voices to coexist and get inspired. Perhaps that is what makes art such a compelling form of storytelling.
The Madras Warp is on display at The Lalit Kala Akademi between till November 7. Entry free