The Integral Coach Factory (ICF) held its fifth art camp — A Daycation Among Trains — at the Chennai Rail Museum on Friday.
Six renowned artistes from the city displayed metal sculptures which they made using scrap from the ICF factories at the event. “It took me 40 days to create this piece, I call it the Princess of ICF,” said Chelian, an artist and sculptor, pointing to his 5 tonne metal creation. “We used electrical wires, nuts and bolts, and pieces of junk we thought would fit in this piece,” he said.
Mr. Chelian was helped by apprentices from the ICF technical training centre. “We helped in welding the items. We too are amazed to see how it came out,” said S. Darshan, a second-year student at the centre.
Apart from creating sculptures, the artistes also displayed paintings inspired by their visits to the coach factory. “This is one campus where we get to explore and exhibit our ideas. Every time we see the junk they are going to throw away, we get excited. We collect them and make art out of it,” said Thejomaye Menon, an artiste working in the medium of sculpting and canvas painting, who also exhibited her metal sculptor creation. “We bore through sun and rain, and we are happy we did it,” she said.
Arun Devraj, curator of the museum, said the idea of the art camp was to carry forward ICFs efforts in promotion of ‘Public Art in Railways’ which was started with a series of art camps since 2011. “We will also be conducting similar camps for children. This way, there will be something extra to do,” he said.
