At Kannadi Cupboard, a sunshine-filled area tucked away in Tambaram, each nook and cranny in its massive, spacious room painted a buttercup yellow holds intrigue. I spot an outdated tv from earlier than the flatscreen period on one aspect, a purple round mat lined with small zines from their newest zine membership assembly unfold out on the ground, a pile of newspapers, a small wood drawer stuffed with bits of paper torn off calendars, a set of rocks on show, and in fact, a glass cabinet full of totally different objects.
The brainchild of siblings Prasanna Venkatesh and Keerthana Alageshan, Kannadi Cupboard was conceived as an ‘everyday gallery’. “With both of us being Design students, we were very inclined towards self-published material such as photobooks, artbooks and zines which we found very gratifying to work on. In different cities, I was exposed to smaller, more domestic places that encouraged this, hosted pop-ups and solo shows, and weren’t as intimidating as the traditional, white box gallery setup,” says Prasanna.
They had been satisfied that Chennai wanted an area like this, which may develop on to turn into a community-building area in the long term. “When we started off, I was not sure where it was leading us to, but it was all about getting the space done up and working on the basics,” Prasanna says. When the area was launched in December, they did so with a callback to the Kannadi Cupboard; a glass cabinet present in each residence. “We reached out to a host of creator practitioners and nearly 50 people sent us an object each, from the glass cupboards in their homes. We laid all of these out in an interactive setup and welcomed people to come to our space and see this,” Prasanna says. The glass cabinet on the everyday gallery nonetheless homes these objects, a mixture of dolls, ceramics, paintings, crafts, cassettes and extra, a illustration of what Indian households throughout the nation showcase and cherish.
A zine membership assembly in progress
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
Nearly six months on, Kannadi Cupboard now hosts common Zine Club conferences, the place Prasanna and Keerthana’s imaginative and prescient for encouraging all the things self-published and artistic comes to the fore. “From tailoring cloth waste to posters for periodicals, we use a host of different material to work with in every session. Zines are traditionally magazines but for me, it is any self-published material in any form, any size and about anything with no censoring involved. Even non-traditional artists who want to express themselves through zines, can do so,” Prasanna explains. All the zines created on the Zine Club have a house on-line as nicely, on the Instagram deal with @onesidepaper.
Kannadi Cupboard can also be set to host the primary of many artist showcases, this weekend, with an exhibition titled Maayai by Chennai-based artist Poorvaja Rathi, the place she makes an attempt to carry by her reflections on the duality of the town she grew up in. “In a typical gallery setting, there will not be as much freedom for an artist to showcase her art in its truest form. Kannadi Cupboard has focussed on nurturing the process more; I was even allowed to paint on the floors if I wanted to and it has been all about using the space to the best of my ability,” says Poorvaja.
Poorvaja Rathi’s artwork
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
Keeping with Prasanna’s imaginative and prescient of being an evolving area for the neighborhood, one that encourages folks from totally different foci to create, work out of and show, Kannadi Cupboard’s line up of upcoming occasions is various and attention-grabbing.
While they hosted a mango potluck in June which had folks bringing in all the things from a prawn and mango stew, mango bhel to a mango tres leches and a Thai uncooked mango salad, a salad potluck is on the calendar for July 12. Aithihya Ashok Kumar, animation movie director from Studio Chitrakoothu can be main a workshop on animating on lightbox on July 20, and for August, Kannadi Cupboard simply introduced its annual self-published ebook truthful Padithavudan Kizhithuvidavum.
“As we grow, we are also reframing the whole idea behind this space and have a host of ideas constantly about all what we can do with design research and publication, as well as with solo-shows and clubs. We hope to have focus groups, discussions, and generally keep the conversation going about the city, its creators, artists, spaces and how they are encouraged,” Prasanna provides.
Kannadi Cupboard is at 2nd flooring, 49, Venkatesan Street, New Market, West Tambaram. Poorvaja Rathi’s present Maayai can be held on July 5 and 6 from 11am to 8pm Follow @kannadi.cabinet on Instagram for extra particulars.
