Saturday, 5 November 2011

Tusk gate

Municipal Park, Changanacherry, Kottayam district, Kerala



























Visual language is probably one of the most pervasive & enduring cultural stamp that a place retains.This tusk - arch reminded me of the ivory mounted dresser, popular with the wealthy in  preindependence Kerala

Before 1947(at times even after but never with legal sanction) Kerala has seen elephant hunting for ivory, at times carved & mostly simply mounted onto furniture,these tusks graced palaces & colonial bungalows. The most common piece of furniture was the dresser, an oval shaped mirror, with a pair of tusks mounted on either sides framing the mirror.