Automobile TED Students Visit Gedee Car Museum

Members of the Automobile Club visited the Gedee Car Museum in Coimbatore during their last TED (Talent Exploration Day) session this year. Four students accompanied by Mr. Sarada Dash, the facilitator of Automobile TED, and Mrs. Geetanjali Deshpande, visited the museum and returned with much more than expected.
The museum had an extensive collection of vintage cars, working models of car parts and even recent car models. The museum provided a fluid narrative of the history of cars, an evolution spanning over a century, which deepened appreciation for the level of sophistication achieved in this day and age.
The museum also had inspiring anecdotes from the life of Mr. G.D. Naidu, the founder of the museum, and relevant quotes from renowned car manufacturers such as Honda and Porsche (Yes, these car manufacturers are named after people!). There were several fascinating car models and designs. As F.A. Porsche rightly said, “Design is not simply art, it is an elegance of function.”
Students were able to apply their theoretical learning of automotive parts and how an engine works, and actually witness first-hand innovations in automotive engineering.

Art Students Visit Kochi

Though I’ve heard about various forms of art, until this trip I had never seen or experienced such a mind-blowing art exhibition. The Kochi-Muziris Biennale is an international art exhibition where over a hundred artists from around the world display their work. Most of the art there is contemporary artwork, which means it is the very latest in what artists are doing now. Much of it is conceptual, where the ideas of the artists are just as important as the way it looks or how it’s made. This made our gallery visits quite interesting, as we often had to do some detective work to understand what the artist was trying to say.  After seeing the kind of art that was on display, my entire perception of art has changed.

The most unique thing about this Biennale was that the art pieces incorporated all the five senses. In the installation by artist/poet Raúl Zurita, a hall slightly bigger than Tarana was filled with water. The artist’s poem entitled ‘The Sea of Pain’ was projected onto the walls, his intention for viewers to walk through the hall and actually feel the message that he was trying to convey.

Not all the work included in the Biennale was contemporary. I particularly liked the intricate Pichvai paintings, a traditional Rajasthani art form. On these Indian temple hangings, painted on cotton cloth, Krishna is depicted in a myriad of forms Interestingly, in temples, these paintings are placed like a background behind the decorated deity.

Our group from Home School had the privilege of interacting both with the founder and president of the  Kochi-Muzuris Biennale Foundation, Bose Krishnamachari, as well as the Artistic Director of this year’s Biennale, Sudarshan Shetty, an internationally renowned artist himself. We were grateful to have the opportunity to hear from them about the vision and mission of such a huge undertaking and what is required to create an event of this kind.

Not only did we get an exposure to all kinds of art at the Biennale, but we also visited the Kerala Folklore Museum where we were awed by the myriad of traditional paintings, intricate sculptures and artifacts we saw there. The architecture of the museum itself was not to be missed.