Chandigarh, October 27
Uniting the finer points of North and South Indian art of sculpting, 30 students from the Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai, and Government College of Arts, Chandigarh, are working hard to give shape to their dream project — a 18-feet Stucco sculpture at the gate of the college in Sector 10 which will immortalise the first students exchange programme carried out by the local Government College of Arts.
The sculpture that comprises two artistically curved ‘C’s to symbolise Chennai and Chandigarh is joined by a human figure to be done in bricks and cement. “Since this is the first ever exchange programme of its kind, we 14 students from Chennai and the third year students of this college designed this model to suit the occasion,” said Mr G. Selvaraj, the teacher who is leading the group of students from Chennai.
The 15-member team from the Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai is in the city as a part of the exchange programme which was started last year by the College of Arts. “We have been learning the technicalities of Stucco sculpture and stone carving for the past eight days,” said Mr Selvaraj. The team had arrived in the city on October 18.
Talking about the differences of working modality as far as sculpture is concerned, Mr Selvaraj said while Chennai College of Fine Arts focuses on abstract variety that has its origin in traditional monumental type of sculptures, in Chandigarh nature has a prominent impact on sculpturing. “Though both follow the same curriculum but the working methods are different in both the places as in South India we are used to work with hard rock like granite while students here work with the soft rocks,” he added.
The students who are already feeling at home in Chandigarh are enjoying not just the working module but their outings too. “We have gone around the city as well as had a trip to Shimla,” they said. In the meantime the Government College of Arts, Chandigarh, has chalked out a detailed work schedule to keep the exchange students engaged for the rest of their stay.
“We have organised a series of lectures for the exchange students that started with veteran architect of the city Prof Aditya Prakash delivering a talk on the architecture of the city and today we have world renowned Art Historian Padamshree Prof. B N Goswami presenting the history of art of this region through a slide show. We are also planning to invite famous sculpturist Shiv Singh for another interactive session” says Prof Brahm Prakash, Principal of the college.
The college will also organise an exhibition of the sculptures created by the students of both the colleges on the concluding day of the exchange programme on October 31.
Another major attraction of the exchange programme is a show which will present Mr. Saini, one of the exchange programme students, who will demonstrate his skill that includes letting 101 cars pass over his hands. The show is scheduled to be held on Wednesday.