Collecting art is personal and everyone’s wall reveals a bit
about themselves. There are empty walls galore, but art lovers yearn for a
worthy art to fill their wall spaces and their hearts, they look for ways to fill
this void. Kochi was delighted to present a unique show of miniatures of
contemporary works, that are extraordinary and rich in diversity, and
titled Small is BIG!. Small is beautiful
was the guiding principle and the show featured both established and promising
visual artists of India who reflected contemporary images / issues in their works
in small form. The main characteristic of this art show was, all the works were in miniature form. Another aspect was that an accomplished collector as well as
a novice could take home the great names inscribed on the exhibited art with
practically no hassle.
Each culture and era has its own guidelines to discriminate what
is miniature based on professional and public opinion. Here, in the Small is BIG! a miniature was any work
that did not exceed 9 inches x 7
inches, the artist had the liberty to express contemporary ideas within
that short window and it was viewed as “fine original art done in small
scale”. It was believed that miniatures had its own place, it
occupies less space as it gives big pride to the collector and invokes the
pristine feeling again and again that blossomed at the first sight. It was assumed that the attraction to miniature works of art lies not only in the
beauty of detail and refinement, but in the uniqueness, preciousness and a
sense of possession –the rareness and practicality of something small.
The size prescribed was also the same size as the iPad screen
size! We hope that the works brought colour to the digital screens!
Small is BIG! was an attempt to create a miniature forum for
the art lovers.
