Shopping an expression of art!

Chennai:

Shoppers in Chennai can now get a dose of culture and art, as a new mall in the city provides artists a platform to display their creative skills.

Phoenix Market City in Velachery, a joint development by Phoenix Mills and Sharyans Resources, is about experiencing art along with shopping , dining  and entertainment, says Vijay Choraria, managing director Sharyans Resources Ltd.

He says the reason to have art in the mall is to promote the culture and spread the artistic fervour among the younger generation. Interestingly, Vijay Choraria has brought together a team of internationally trained art experts to set up the infrastructure to display works of art in the mall including technological platforms such as such as an interactive digital sign system and an 8.96 meter x 5.44 meter digital LED screen on the façade of the building.

The mall is expected to have around 30,000 visitors and this could provide an unprecedented audience for the contemporary art, says Choraria.

Interestingly, through the art Choraria is hoping to reach out to a new generation of art lovers and artists. He says the mall will be providing opportunities for artists to engage with the local Chennai community and make new works that will be iconic to the region.

The Phoenix Market City has an exhibition of monumental sculptures by Ravinder Reddy, Gigi Scaria, and Thukral & Tagra (T&T). Interestingly, it is Reddy’s larger than life head sculpture of woman with neatly coiled black hair, wide dark eyes, and colored lips being displayed at the mall that has caught the attraction of men and women alike. Many were seen trying to get themselves photographed. Another  giant art-work on the center podium of the mall which is attracting the shoppers is T&T's 4.2 meter tall sculpture made of resin bottles, “Apocalyptron”. The mall also has in display Gigi Scaria's work, “Steps of Predicament,” which was commissioned for the 2011 Singapore Biennale and has never been seen in India before, says Choraria. The work critiques thoughtless and homogeneous gentrification, and finds a perfect home in a commercial space such as this mall.

It is not just art but also a brief description about the art that is slowly catching the eyes of the visitors as they try to decipher the work of art by poring through the pamphlet and electronic way finders.

Also on display is New York based street artist Aakash Nihalani’s new temporary installations with carpenter's tape that create optical illusions at the entrances of the mall. This year Nihalani would be creating a permanent new sculptural intervention on the mall’s escalators.


Interestingly, Choraria is also using the escalators and elevators in the mall to become hubs for artistic interventions. The escalators have “tickers” installed alongside them to provide a platform for text-based art, and the elevators are equipped to play sound art.

The elevator banks in the main entrance each display video projections. In the inaugural video exhibition, Force of Nature, four video artists from around the world explore the invisible powers that drive the universe. Alyson Shotz (US), Cheng Ran (China), Takashi Ishida (Japan), and Rohini Devasher all created their works in Asia, and these artists belong to esteemed collections such as the Guggenheim and MoMA. Rohini Devasher was recently named as one of the “Top Young Indians to Watch” by a Indian magazine, and the other three artists have never exhibited in India before.

“It is an inclusive mall and has something for every generation,” says Choraria. The mall will also boast of 11 screen multiplexes with IMAX technology, which has the capacity to record and display images of far greater size and resolution than conventional film systems. The mall will also have a Hard Rock Café, which is known for having the biggest music memorabilia in the world with over 72,000 pieces from stars such as Prince, Michael Jackson, Eric Clapton, Madonna, to name a few