Viswanathan Anand hardly has area to play a sport of chess inside his home.
Art has taken over a bulk of the area at his luxurious residence in Chennai’s Kotturpuram. If a portray of lord Hayagriva is situated subsequent to a flowery chess board that was gifted to him overseas, a sketch of a tiger is perched proper close to a chess board manufactured from paper.
Viswanathan Anand and Akhil interview
| Video Credit:
Thamodharan B., Shivaraj S.
Anand doesn’t thoughts in any respect… as a result of the mind behind these works is his son, Sai Akhil Anand, who’s gearing up for his solo exhibition, Morphogenesis.
“My house is now 50% art, 50% chess,” beams Indian chess legend Viswanathan Anand, “Traditionally, it has always been full of my trophies and newspaper clippings about my achievements. Recently, it has started to fill up with Akhil’s budding art journey. I’m happy to share what art means to the family.”
The Anands will do extra of that in the first week of August when Morphogenesis opens in Chennai. “I do a lot of Indian art like Gond, madhubani, worli and cheriyal and connect it with math patterns,” says 14-year-old Akhil about the parts of his present, which has been curated by his trainer, Diana Satish.
Artist Akhil Anand, son of chess icon Viswanathan Anand
| Photo Credit:
Shiva Raj S
The numbers sport
Akhil, at present finding out in Class IX at Chennai’s Beyond 8, may be the son of a champion synonymous with chess, however it was art that appealed to him from a younger age. “I once observed the stripes of a zebra and tiger and noticed its patterns. Ever since, I have been fascinated with patterns.”
His early works had been about individuals – of fashionable personalities like Newton, Einstein and Gandhi. This fascination grew right into a ardour throughout the COVID lockdown just a few years in the past. Explains Anand, “With more time in his hands, he (Akhil) got deeper into art. He was deeply inspired by the programmes of David Attenborough that spoke about about patterns and colour in Nature.”
Morphogenesis will function all that. If the sequence referred to as the Bindu Bovine entails Akhil’s creative interpretation of a cow utilizing parts of fractal geometry, the UnBinary sequence – impressed by the geometric works of Dutch painter Piet Mondrian – options topics in binary colors. So, what’s his private favorite? Akhil states, “The series on animal superheroes, which talks about a few animals that are endangered and close to extinction.” In that sequence, shut to Akhil’s coronary heart, are sketches on animals like Moo Deng, the hippopotamus from Thailand Zoo that went on to grow to be an Internet sensation, and Tajiri, the giraffe at New York’s Animal Adventure Park, which has grow to be an emblem for giraffe conservation.
Chess icon Viswanathan Anand and spouse Aruna with their son Akhil Anand, whose art present ‘Morphogenesis’ can be on in Chennai.
| Photo Credit:
Shiva Raj S
The proper strikes
The Anands – each Viswanathan Anand and his spouse, Aruna – are cheerleaders for his or her son’s pursuit of art. Anand recollects, “When I was growing up, my father – who worked in the Railways – had a more conventional job, which meant strict working hours. He tried to keep up with my passion for chess, and was very supportive. I think it’s the same for me; I try to keep up with Akhil’s artistic pursuits.”
He factors out that there are numerous similarities between chess and art. “In chess, you are forced to sit in front of a board and focus on the job at hand. It’s quite similar in art; you have your tools in front of you, and you need to focus. While technology can help with research, you still need to get back to the job at hand and focus,” he explains.
When they aren’t discussing chess or art, the Anands dig quite a bit into music; English musician Sting and Irish rock band U2 are amongst their favourites. Anand explains, “For me, it was quite surprising that Akhil ended up liking a lot of music from my teenage days. He is well informed of that time. I have the habit of listening to my favourite song from an album and moving on, but he listens to all of them. But, he is also my gateway into modern music and singers.”
Even as Anand retains up his duties as a mentor to the present crop of rising Indian chess skills, he nonetheless performs doting dad at residence. Akhil and Anand bond over not simply art and music, but additionally get pleasure from enjoying a sport of desk tennis each time they discover time. And after all, they additionally play chess. Akhil is but to win towards Anand – however he’s at present mastering the hyper accelerated dragon and London System to get one up towards the Indian chess legend. He says, “I play a lot of chess, but my dream is to become an environmental lawyer and bring upon awareness about issues like climate change and global warming. I want to fight against plastic and air pollution. My role model is BR Ambedkar, the father of the Constitution of India.”
Morphogenesis can be on from August 1 to August 7 at ArtHouse by Kalpadruma, situated at 37, Gopalapuram 1st Street, Kanakasri Nagar, Gopalapuram, Chennai.
