An overview of sculptures in public spaces of Chennai. : Public sculpture in Chennai

Sculpture is an obdurate medium. It inhabits space and demands our attention. It exposes itself without illusion or sleight-of-hand in all its materiality and stands bravely before us. Public sculpture by sheer location and magnitude of scale as an objector an installation offers the viewer a space for aesthetic interaction and contemplation. Public art is also beginning to include other much more process- driven and action-research based artistic practices as well. This expanded scope of public art has embraced many diverse practices and art forms. In the 1990s the clear differentiation of these new practices from previous forms of artistic presence in the public space calls for alternative definitions that are more specific like contextual art relational art participatory art dialogic art community- based art activist art etc. and the recent arts are more comprehensive such as “new genre public art”.This book is an attempt to document all the prevailing sculpture in the public spaces of Chennai dated from the earliest to the most recent modern sculptures. I have restricted my research to documenting the sculptures of Chennai which were made and installed since 1839 till date. Since there are numerous sculptures installed in the city this book has been limited to life size and larger than life size portraits only which show a level of idealisation.