Author: Kejriwal Shawn

Overlooking the Bay of Bengal, sits the Shore temple, a historic 8th century temple in the small town of Mamallapuram in present-day India. The Shore temple served as a visual marker for foreign commuters, promoting Mamallapuram as a busy port town and is the remains of a complex of seven temples or ‘Pagodas’, the others submerged in the ocean. Blocks of granites form the temple walls and support a highly sculpted tower which forms the central mass placed over the shrine, marking the progession from rock-cut construction to the earliest freestanding structural stone temple. This drawing looks to capture what constitutes a key part of the user’s experience - a view to the rising tower. The tower consists of a vimana, the visually dominant, sculpted, pyramidal tower and is capped by a kalasa, the pinnacle element which is an octagonal dome of basaltic rock and finished with a metal finial. While we witness and admire the play of light enhancing the age old beauty and strength of the vimana of the Shore Temple, shade helps reveal the sculptural details carved out of the granite rock, unveiling a fine masterpiece of Dravidian temple architecture. The juxtaposition of light and shade on the external appearance becomes a defining architectural feature of the Shore temple and the rendition aims to celebrate this unique quality.

Размеры рисунка или рисунков (в см) / Sizes of the Drawing/Drawings (cm): 17,5 x 22,5 см

Drawing technique / Техника исполнения : Pen and Ink

Год исполнения / Year of the Drawing: 2014