Aashti Miller’s wall art in Thiruvananthapuram, Vellam, celebrates the city’s links to water in myriad forms
The Hindu
Aashti Miller wall art in Thiruvananthapuram, Vellam, celebrates the city’s links to water in myriad forms
Aashti Miller’s hands and clothes are covered with paint — shades of blue and specks of red, yellow and white. Standing next to her wall art on the premises of Vismaya Max, located in the heritage Keston House on Keston Road, she is busy posing for photographs with visitors and some of the artists who assisted her.
Architect-artist Aashti was on her first trip to Thiruvananthapuram to participate in the third edition of the wall festival organised by the Alliance Francaise in association with the French Embassy in India.
Measuring 10 feet by 16 feet, Aashti’s wall art, Vellam (water) is dominated by geometric shapes painted in shades of blue to “signify the relationship of the city and water”. It depicts the city’s urban layout and intricate network of waterways, captured in myriad shades of blue, which connect the city.
She explains that the basic outline is an “abstraction of the city grid and how it is intersected by water”.
“Water is a hot button issue in Kerala. Now, with the State government focussing on reviving historic waterways in the city that have been lost to time, I wanted to draw attention to the aspect of water versus the city.”
She explains that the entire work was completely planned, the paints colour coded and the drawing completely drawn. Taking a plan of the city, she altered it slightly and then a copy was pasted on the wall.
“It is important for me to know how it will look and what will look right on a certain space. I am an architect and not an artist. So everything is planned.”
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