EkChitra: Where art finds a larger canvas

What happens when a gallery stops being just a place to look at art and starts becoming a place to encounter it?

Key points

• Annapurna adds further, There are so plenty of stories that are not known and have not been documented.
• She believes Hyderabad's cultural identity has been reduced to familiar symbols – biryani, Charminar, IT, Golconda and haleem – leaving behind the wider landscape of the region's history.
• As its shaping expands, Annapurna is turning towards the artistic histories of Hyderabad and the Telugu states – histories she believes have not received the attention they deserve.
• While the new EkChitra space looks backwards to recover stories, it is equally invested in looking forward.
• She studied art and its history, but formative lessons came from her father.

"It was a need because Hyderabad still has very few options for public art spaces, " Annapurna notes, adding, "After all these years, I felt that my work deserved a space which was more permanent, where I could build more of an ecosystem for art."

For context, the move arrived when she felt time was right. Annapurna's relationship with art began early, and her years as a curator have given her a perspective that refuses rigid boxes. The galleries she grew up seeing became inspirations, but her approach has moved towards something more fluid.

She shares, "I have always believed art is multi-dimensional. It is more fluid. It doesn't have a shape or one medium. It has multiple mediums and it just flows from one medium to another. We need not segregate it and put it into silos. I'd rather look at it as a whole."

That belief is embodied in the new gallery, including 'Converge by EkChitra'. It brings together creative practices and ideas. "When you have a conversation outside of your own world, but it is still connected with it, the horizon just opens up. When you have an exchange of thought between painting, sculpture, mixed media or new media and a writer, poet or another creative medium, it changes the way you see things. That exchange opens up your horizon, and that is what I believe in and what we are trying to build with EkChitra, " she explains.

As its shaping expands, Annapurna is turning towards the artistic histories of Hyderabad and the Telugu states – histories she believes have not received the attention they deserve. While Baoli Art Sangam seeks to connect contemporary art with heritage, individuals and place, living Temple – Edition 2 and Keerthanam are part of that effort.

While the new EkChitra space looks backwards to recover stories, it is equally invested in looking forward. "We want to nurture younger artists and build something around their practice where we can work with them through their journey. We want to show them a route map into the field of art. That is something we really want to build with EkChitra, " she notes.

Her interest in this history is deeply personal. She studied art and its history, but formative lessons came from her father. "My father is into art, and he had a connect to the earlier generation. His teachers spoke regarding their gurus, and those stories became my bedtime stories. He would tell me regarding how G D Paul Raj garu worked, how Laxma garu practiced, and concerning Thota Vaikuntam garu. This person was a senior to my father. These were stories that were not written in books, " she expresses.

Annapurna adds further, "There are so plenty of stories that are not known and have not been documented. We have began working on that. We are documenting these stories, and going forward, EkChitra will become a platform where individuals can interact with their families and with researchers, including those working on PhDs. In a way, it is additionally a dedication to our own history."

She believes Hyderabad's cultural identity has been reduced to familiar symbols – biryani, Charminar, IT, Golconda and haleem – leaving behind the wider landscape of the region's history. "We have reduced this incredibly wide canvas of history to a few familiar images. But Hyderabad additionally has Kakatiya footprints and so numerous other layers of history that we don't talk regarding enough, " she points out.

Notably, the gallery's planning reflects that philosophy. "With the upcoming exhibitions, you will see a wide canvas of different mediums of artwork. We just didn't want it to stick to a particular group or a particular medium. We want it to be particularly fluid. When you walk into the space, you will be taken through different mediums of art, and most of them are young artists. I think individuals will be surprised by what they are putting together, " she concludes.

In short, ekChitra: Where art finds a larger canvas is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.