At Kannadi Cupboard, a sunshine-filled space tucked away in Tambaram, every nook and cranny in its large, spacious room painted a buttercup yellow holds intrigue. I spot an old television from before the flatscreen era on one side, a red circular mat covered with small zines from their latest zine club meeting spread out on the floor, a pile of newspapers, a small wooden drawer filled with bits of paper torn off calendars, a collection of rocks on display, and of course, a glass cupboard crammed with different objects.
The brainchild of siblings Prasanna Venkatesh and Keerthana Alageshan, Kannadi Cupboard was conceived as an ‘everyday gallery’. “With both of us being Design students, we were very inclined towards self-published material such as photobooks, artbooks and zines which we found very gratifying to work on. In different cities, I was exposed to smaller, more domestic places that encouraged this, hosted pop-ups and solo shows, and weren’t as intimidating as the traditional, white box gallery setup,” says Prasanna.
They were convinced that Chennai needed a space like this, which could grow on to become a community-building space in the long run. “When we started off, I was not sure where it was leading us to, but it was all about getting the space done up and working on the basics,” Prasanna says. When the space was launched in December, they did so with a callback to the Kannadi Cupboard; a glass cupboard found in every home. “We reached out to a host of creator practitioners and nearly 50 people sent us an object each, from the glass cupboards in their homes. We laid all of these out in an interactive setup and welcomed people to come to our space and see this,” Prasanna says. The glass cupboard at the everyday gallery still houses these objects, a mix of dolls, ceramics, artwork, crafts, cassettes and more, a representation of what Indian households across the country showcase and cherish.
A zine club meeting in progress
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Special Arrangement
Nearly six months on, Kannadi Cupboard now hosts regular Zine Club meetings, where Prasanna and Keerthana’s vision for encouraging everything self-published and creative comes to the fore. “From tailoring cloth waste to posters for periodicals, we use a host of different material to work with in every session. Zines are traditionally magazines but for me, it is any self-published material in any form, any size and about anything with no censoring involved. Even non-traditional artists who want to express themselves through zines, can do so,” Prasanna explains. All the zines created at the Zine Club have a home online as well, at the Instagram handle @onesidepaper.
Kannadi Cupboard is also set to host the first of many artist showcases, this weekend, with an exhibition titled Maayai by Chennai-based artist Poorvaja Rathi, where she attempts to bring through her reflections on the duality of the city she grew up in. “In a typical gallery setting, there will not be as much freedom for an artist to showcase her art in its truest form. Kannadi Cupboard has focussed on nurturing the process more; I was even allowed to paint on the floors if I wanted to and it has been all about using the space to the best of my ability,” says Poorvaja.
Poorvaja Rathi’s art
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Special Arrangement
Keeping with Prasanna’s vision of being an evolving space for the community, one that encourages people from different foci to create, work out of and display, Kannadi Cupboard’s line up of upcoming events is varied and interesting.
While they hosted a mango potluck in June which had people bringing in everything from a prawn and mango stew, mango bhel to a mango tres leches and a Thai raw mango salad, a salad potluck is on the calendar for July 12. Aithihya Ashok Kumar, animation film director from Studio Chitrakoothu will be leading a workshop on animating on lightbox on July 20, and for August, Kannadi Cupboard just announced its annual self-published book fair Padithavudan Kizhithuvidavum.
“As we grow, we are also reframing the whole idea behind this space and have a host of ideas constantly about all what we can do with design research and publication, as well as with solo-shows and clubs. We hope to have focus groups, discussions, and generally keep the conversation going about the city, its creators, artists, spaces and how they are encouraged,” Prasanna adds.
Kannadi Cupboard is at 2nd floor, 49, Venkatesan Street, New Market, West Tambaram. Poorvaja Rathi’s show Maayai will be held on July 5 and 6 from 11am to 8pm Follow @kannadi.cupboard on Instagram for more details.
Published – July 02, 2025 03:50 pm IST