The Auto Project - Madras Week celebration August 9, 2009

The Auto Project - Madras Week celebration. Apparao Galleries, as a platform for the creative community & its role as an art incubator, has planned a fun project to take creativity to the streets. Madras, the home of Kollywood, is a treasure of artistic decorative ideas. From handmade Rexine seat covers, to the billboards that used adorn Mount road, to tinsel decorations to cow neck cords, to glass stickers on vehicles & so much more available in markets of Triplicane, Jam Bazaar and Chintadripet. Hence the 'Auto Adornment Project'. This is a fun project by Apparao Galleries to promote the essence of Madras and what better way than to show off our very own Madras autos. The autos that will be made available for adornment are the commercial public autos and these will be adorned by creative people/artists chosen by Apparao Galleries to adorn. Why adorn the auto? - To take art to the streets and allow people from different walks of life to enjoy art in autos. To have mobile art pieces on the streets.If Switzerland can have a cow festival, then what stops Chennai or India from doing an auto adornment initiative? To bring the decorative tradition to autos just like the rickshaws of Bangladesh, trucks & autos of Pakistan & trucks of Kerala. It is a tradition of in South Asia & why not opens it out to Madras autos also. The tradition of elaborately decorated bill boards existed in South India & the banner artists are a group of highly skilled urban craftsmen who are fast disappearing. This idea may engineer a new trend to create a livelihood for them. There is a cross country auto race, so why not add an auto adornment initiative to something very much part of our culture? To follow the tradition of adornment of a loved one. To extend the relationship between man & machine. To make auto driver have pride in their 'Vaahana'. The pride of the auto drivers with their very own art works will make them amenable to passengers.

Official Website: http://www.buzzintown.com/?126439&ref=yupg&refcity=9