Of Wrinkles & Brushstrokes: Make Way For The Muses, Kerala Style!
All the models are aged above 70 and are employed by the college in a mutually-beneficial relationship.
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Lakshmi Amma sits still for hours on a small table in a room, modelling for a group of students who recreate her face on canvas.
Along with four other models, Lakshmi Amma keeps up the unique modelling tradition at Thiruvananthapuram Fine Arts College – all of them are aged above 70 and are employed by the college in a mutually-beneficial relationship.
Being the only woman among the five models, Lakshmi Amma is the most sought-after and earns between Rs 1,500 to Rs 1,800 a month.
She lives alone in the Pappanamcode area of the city.
Seventy-one-year-old Lakshmi Amma used to work as a domestic help at the house of one of the teachers of the college.
“At this age I cannot undertake any kind of strenuous employment. This, hence, comes as a solace. Earlier, it used to be Rs 150 per day, now it has increased,” she smiles.
She has been doing this since the past 13 years. On her ‘work’ days, she has to sit on a chair or a table from 9.30 am to 3.30 pm, as students attempt to recreate her likeness on canvas or in sculpture, as part of their syllabus.
One expects a model to sit still, but Lakshmi Amma keeps up a steady stream of chatter all the while.
Hiring elderly people as models has become a decade-old tradition at the college, because the college cannot afford to hire new (read younger) models.
While speaking to The News Minute, College Principal AS Sajith admitted,
Kabeer (70) got the job due to slight resemblance to Chellappan, opine a few college staff members.
Seventy-five-year old Chellappan was a mini-celebrity on the campus, having modelled for the students for a quarter of a century till his death in 2010.
On entering the campus, sculptures of a simple man wearing a mundu greet you. Some of them are adorned with creepers, a few others lie half-broken. Chellappan had modelled for these sculptures.
A dark-complexioned man with a wrinkled face and sagging chest, Kabeer earns his living by operating a weighing machine that people use to check their body weight.
Kabeer was ‘discovered’ around four years ago by a student.
Kabeer, who is separated from his family, does not have a home of his own, and sleeps on the verandah of a shop in the city.
Seventy-three-year-old Krishna Pillai was part of the Fine Arts College since 1989, from the time he began working as a watchman there. It was in 2010-12 years after his retirement that he again returned to the campus, this time as a model.
Pillai is also quick to admit that none of the models were as suited to the role as Chellappan, “He had good features. He was a perfect model.”
Rathnaiyyan, 75, was a close acquaintance of Chellappan, “We used to be together. I have now been coming here for the past 20 years. The vacuum left by Chellappan’s absence is still felt in the campus,” he said.
He is also worried that the various ailments that he suffers from may not allow him to model, as much as he would like to. The students too expressed their concern about how future batches may not have any models to recreate.
“Live models cannot be avoided in Fine Arts courses. Their scarcity would definitely be a concern in future,” feels Sajith, the college principal.
(This story was originally published in The News Minute)