Chennai in France. It’s a puzzling concept to grasp at first. ‘Well, what do you mean?’ this reporter asks city-based artist, Aishwarya Manivannan. Sitting at her drawing table on the ground floor of her home in Choolaimedu (after riding through peak subway traffic) – one cannot imagine what the two places have in common. But then she takes out large canvas paintings with glimpses of ‘Velayutham cycle works’ and the ‘LIC building’ and places them on the table. Wait a minute, that’s not Mount Road. “Nope, that’s a broad road somewhere in Europe,” she responds. If this isn’t baffling enough for the first impression of an art project, there’s more. “It’s not a painting,” she clarifies. “That used to be a black and white photograph – until I painted on top of it.”
There are photo-canvasses of Tamil-style political banners, Kollywood movie posters, Pazhamudir boards on street corners, local street signage...even a delicately painted pattai on a parked Figo car in one of the images. But the irony is that none of these visuals is of Chennai! “Okay let me explain,” Aishwarya laughs. “It all started with an email I got from a French photographer, Frédéric Delangle in December last year.” Apparently the photographer had visited India earlier, and was eager to replicate the culture of bright vaasthu colours that he had seen in Chennai on house walls, street signage that he found unique and other elements typically Madras. “But he wanted Chennai’s local flavour to be imprinted on his black and white shots of France and Europe at large,” explains the artist. Given that the project is being worked across continents, it’s understandable that all of their communication is via email. But the best part? Aishwarya reveals with a laugh, “I don’t speak French and he doesn’t speak English!” Now we know why they call art a universal language.
So what language is the text in each mail? “No text, just images,” the 24-year-old tells us. Apparently the time log to colourise each photograph by hand is any time between a 60 to 70 hours of work, Aishwarya reveals as she lets out a sigh. “So before I start any work on the actual photo print (2x3 feet), I email an A4 size sample of the ideas I have in mind,” she explains. This is then sent back to her with circled portions by the photographer that he likes, dislikes or wants to alter. “And apart from the actual painting, I put in a lot of research time just walking the city with my camera for ideas,” Aishwarya adds. “You see, I can’t add new structures to the photograph. I have to transform what’s in it already to match a street say in T Nagar. So there’s a lot of creativity involved.” Like the LIC building, which was formerly a skyscraper somewhere on a broad stretch of road in Europe.
With the compiled project, a collection of approximately 15 photo-art pieces set to release in France in 2014 – one has to wonder out loud – were the months of work spent over individual images worth it in the end? “Well I didn’t do all of them,” Aishwarya responds quickly. “But the process has allowed me to be pretty adventurous with each piece that I’ve colourised,” she smiles. “And now I know that with a splash of vaasthu colours and Tamil banner artist work, you can create a piece of home in any part of the world.”