Scaffold has been working as a collective to bring artists together since its inception. The idea behind this curatorial project connects to my experience as an artist and brings together artists who have a connection to Chennai. The show title ‘Broadway’ refers to the College of Fine Arts, Chennai. Founded in 1850, it was located at Broadway, moving to its present premises on EVR Periyar road later. If it weren’t for this college, I would not have had the opportunity to meet the 9 other artists in this group show. It has been fascinating to travel back to the roots of my practice as an artist and to pay tribute to the college in which I learned and experienced art. Four of the participating artists in this exhibition are alumni of Govt. College of Fine Arts and Marcia Neblett was a visiting professor at this prestigious institution. The other artists have either visited the college or have been closely associated with Chennai. Scaffold is a group that was founded by Shinod Akkaraparambil and myself in 2011 through discussions that led to a Facebook profile. Our first group show was in 2014 and included college peer Vijay Pichumani. As a trio, we went on to present major shows in Chennai and Bangalore. The expansion of the group felt imminent as the idea of Scaffold is to collaborate with artists from different cultural backgrounds and work in different media. Consequently, we welcomed Janarthanan Rudhramoorthy, Kiran Thulasi, and Sameer Rao in 2019, paving the way for this project. Through this show, I am delighted to involve Marcia Neblett, Lynn Bennett-Mackenzie, Vasundhara Shankari, and Tamara de Laval. The COVID pandemic has restricted the movement of people and has defined the boundaries of interactions within homes. Technology, on the other hand, transcends physical borders and expands virtual connections. There is no more internationalism in the virtual world moving forward, which calls into question the specificity of cultural background. Although art cannot be enjoyed virtually in the same way as reality, the possibilities of social media as new age galleries to express our thoughts, as well as reaching a larger audience is exciting. In this sense ‘Broadway’ is a wider project to bring closer artists not considering the distances we live apart, but the ideals of collaboration. For this reason, in addition to our online show, we are initiating a series of conversations around our practices and the possibilities of connecting to people who would love to enjoy art during this new normal. Shinod’s work talks about the microcosm and macrocosm of his existence in the universe. He seeks to bring in and camouflage structures from his observation with tangible structures using minimalistic values and tones. Vijay started as a printmaker specializing in large-size woodcuts. Inspired by nature and landscape, later works have evolved into sculptures and paintings depicting contemporary social issues. Kiran experiments with photography and painting to freeze the moment. Our connection dates back to college and our shared community studio at Lalit Kala Akademi in Chennai. We have exhibited together on several occasions since 2007. His series Thuriya is the outcome of an inner search. Janarthanan started as a painter and later evolved into a sculptor. He has exhibited widely across India. He is inspired by the human body and sees it as a nest for the soul. His metal sculptures depict the free movement of the body and the self as expressions. Sameer was in Chennai as a scholar at Lalit Kala Akademi. He works with different mediums and experiments with ideas to give them a visual form. He aims to achieve multidimensionality in his works and succeeds. Through the making of his video, he combines origami-like sculptures with print, verging on the absurd to arrive at something new. Marcia is an educator with over 20 years of experience; she was a Fulbright fellow from the USA who came to teach Printmaking in Govt. College of Fine Arts in 2007. Through her expertise in the woodcut technique, she inspired a lot of students to take up woodcuts as a major medium to express their artwork. Vijay was her student during her tenure in India. She uses traditional and digital drawing, printmaking, and illustration to create figurative narratives, portraits, landscapes, and still life. She is influenced by her immediate surroundings as well as current events. I met Vasundhara at the Art Chennai festival in 2014. She curated me into two group shows titled ‘Drawing Index’ and ‘Poka-yoke’ at Cholamandal Artists’ Village, Chennai, in 2019. Her studies in architecture and art history are a key source of inspiration in her artworks. Recent pieces combine references to geometric abstraction and humble details from everyday life like cement wall reliefs of brightly painted houses in South India. Tamara lived in Pondicherry in the 1970s and has visited and exhibited in Chennai and other parts of India often over the years. On one such visit in 2010, I was introduced to her at Lalit Kala Akademi, Chennai. Her work deals with life experience, ongoing conflicts in the world, and feminism. Her works have different layers that are translucent and take on philosophical and theoretical connections. Lynn came to India for residency in Gujarat, and exhibited her work in Gujarat and Delhi. She was in Chennai for a brief period during her visit to India where she created artwork. Her works are about her life experiences and she likes to experiment with various mediums in a non-prescriptive way. Her works in this exhibition talk about the lunar cycle and its relation to women, as well as about the catharsis she has been through. Finally, I would like to talk about my art practice, which traverses multiple mediums and ideas. In my work, the concept chooses the medium and I prefer to connect several elements, philosophies, and readings in each work. The above-said elements are what I was looking for in this curatorial project. In addition to personal connections to Chennai, the artists here are open to experimentation with mediums and ideas. For this group, identity emerges with the concept of the work rather than a visual signature. We do not follow one style or medium and are vulnerable and open to challenges. I hope these challenges thrive and extend, prompting the production of more work. - Sujeeth Kumar Sree Kandan