The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Book on south Indian art released

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 26, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Book on south Indian art released

Staff Reporter

`Southern Axis' contains biographical sketches of artists and their paintings

BOOK RELEASE: N. Ravi, Editor, The Hindu presents the first copy of `Southern Axis,' to Preetha Reddy, Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals, in Chennai on Monday. Meena Dadha, founder director of Mukti, (extreme right), A.C. Mohandas, Director, South Zone Cultural Centre (left) and C.K. Gariyali, Secretary to Governor, look on. — Photo: Shaju John

CHENNAI: Mukti, in collaboration with Prakrit Arts, on Monday released `Southern Axis,' a selection of contemporary art of southern India.

The book, curated by Meena Dadha, founder-director of Mukti, and edited by Lakshmi Venkatraman, is a compendium of the art scene in south India and contains biographical sketches of artistes and their paintings.

Releasing the work, N. Ravi, Editor, The Hindu, commended the "noble work of Mukti" in making and fitting artificial limbs and training people to do it.

While natural disasters such as the tsunami and the Kashmir earthquake drew spontaneous response from people even at the far end of the globe, persistent deprivations did not attract much attention. Mukti has been addressing problems of persistent deprivations in society, he said.

A pioneer

In his message, Governor Surjit Singh Barnala said Mukti, which was started in 1994, was the first institution to employ mentally challenged persons in various aspects of fabricating artificial limbs, calipers, screen-printing and offset printing after imparting training to them. It also employed orthopaedically and mentally challenged persons, which constituted 40 per cent of the workforce.

Ms. Meena Dadha said Mukti's theme was `freedom from crutches.'

The foundation had started another workshop at Kottakuppam in Pondicherry with an art gallery and studio.

Those who participated included Alphonso Doss, painter; Preetha Reddy, managing director, Apollo Hospitals, who received the first copy of `Southern Axis;' Poonam Lalchand, chairperson, Mukti; Nirmal Mirza, chairperson of its Pondicherry unit; and A.C. Mohandas, director, Southern Zone Cultural Centre.

`Southern Axis' is available at Mukti. The price of the hardbound copy is Rs. 750 and the paperback is Rs. 500.

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