This Coimbatore studio has come up with an artistic calendar representing the city and its people

This Coimbatore studio has come up with an artistic calendar representing the city and its people

As a travel photographer, Aakash Selvan constantly meets people from different places. Many ask him for a souvenir representing Coimbatore, his hometown. “But there isn’t one particular thing to represent the city. Yes, there might be a few things that people outside Coimbatore relate it with, like Annapoorna coffee or the Adiyogi statue. But we don’t have something like Chennai having Marina or Tirunelveli having its halwa,” he says. 

So, when he and his friends started a multidisciplinary studio, cheekily called ‘Them’) in Coimbatore, they wanted their first creation to represent the city. Once again, they brainstormed for specific places or structures like the North Coimbatore flyover, Valankulam Lake, and the Town Hall clock tower. But Aakash and friends realised Coimbatore is beyond its buildings and structures. “It’s more of an emotion and a feeling. It’s about its people, the nicety, the respect, the kindness and the selflessness,” he adds.

They have tried to visualise these intangible traits of the city in Them’s first-ever project: a calendar for 2024 called Coimbatore Calling. 

Over the 12 months, the calendar tells a visual story of a family of four giants cohabiting with Coimbatore. But who are these giants? 

‘No one knows their origin, yet tales of legends and myths carry their history through centuries,’ the calendar’s note informs us. More than who they are (“We want to leave that to the people’s imagination,” says Aakash), the more pertinent question is: Why are they in Coimbatore of all places?

The note adds: ‘Why choose a small city in the middle of nowhere, with no hustle or bustle?, we wondered. Does it all boil down to the city choosing you? Beyond historical grandeur, abundant resources, perpetual pleasant weather, and a thriving economy, exist its people.’

‘People from different corners of the country and the world have turned it into a patchwork of cultures, traditions, and food, held together by the common thread of love and warmth. They claimed Coimbatore was more than a choice; it was here that their pursuit of harmony and coexistence found not just a destination but its beginning.’