Yazhini’s golden curls and traditional harp, the yazh, transfixed the travellers at the bustling Central Chennai Railway Station. They would stop, luggage still in hand, to gape at her. Some of them inevitably clicked selfies.
Yazhini was among the seven artworks made of railway metal scrap that were displayed at an exhibition titled Beauty and Bliss at the station in early July. Organised by the Indian Railways’ Integral Coach Factory, the initiative brought together seven Chennai artists, each entrusted with the task of using factory rejects to create works of art.
“My work is a mix of my dream and imagination,” said the creator of Yazhini, D Nedunthelian, who goes by the pseudonym Chelian. “The sculpture is Indian with a touch of modernism. In Yazhini, the yazh is an ancient string instrument, which is said to be the invention of Tamilians.”
Memory of migration
Beauty and Bliss was first conceived by the Integral Coach Factory, which manufactures rail coaches, in early 2017. Over time, several artists were approached and 29 sculptures commissioned. Thejomaye Menon, who works closely with the factory, said the idea was to make the public connect with art.
“It was such a fascinating sight to see people connect with the sculptures,” Menon said. “According to statistics, around 5,000 to 10,000 people travel by train [in Chennai] every day. We thought that if we could make something out of nothing, it would get the public associated with art. It is amazing the things we can do with twisted, scrap metal.”
Every sculpture at the exhibition spoke of the train traveller. For instance, Jacob Jebaraj’s artwork, Migration, was about the emotions associated with travel. “The memory of migration was my inspiration,” Jebaraj said. “People migrate from place to place with a memory of a city that they are going to visit or the city that they are coming from.”
Jebaraj’s Migration showed a mix of butterflies, wheels and moving objects. The butterfly with closed wings, he explained, “is [to signify] the kind of meditation that a person is in. Before it takes off, the butterfly is still. So I used a lot of thorns, wheels and a ship to show movement and mobility as migration is about movement.”
Shailesh BO’s The Bird was another artwork that took inspiration from nature to refer to train travel. “Railway station is about eagerly waiting for somebody and waiting is but [like] a flower,” he said.
Scrap for thought
All commissioned artists were given six days to complete their artwork, which involved welding metal, followed by colouring. But first they had to go into the coach factory’s scrapyard “to collect stuff,” said Menon. “If I see scrap anywhere now, I look at design. All of us have become like that.”
Nuts and bolts made up the primary structure of Chelian’s Yazhini. The artist drew inspiration from Tanjore temples, the ancient Tamil text Tolkappiyam and the Dancing Girl sculpture from Mohenjo-daro. The golden artwork stood out for its inscriptions, which according to Chelian, was informed by the etchings frequently found on ancient sculptures. Yazhini, he said, was conceived as an old sculpture unearthed by archaeologists.
Chelian, Jebaraj and the other participating artists, including Shalini Biswajit, Asma Menon and AV Ilango, agreed that that the Integral Coach Factory could be a paragon for corporations that produce waste. “We want to trigger students’ minds and tell them that everything is recycled and anything is possible,” Jebaraj said. “Like any other education, art education is very important.” The sculptures have now been transferred to the Chennai Rail Museum in the city.
