A typical Saturday is spent Mall Crawling. Alas! I’ve finally revealed my deepest, darkest secret – I love Mall Crawling especially  at Phoenix High Street , Parel  because I love soaking in the ambiance that luxury brands exude and the comforting thought that even if I can’t afford Chanel couture, I can at least afford a lipstick ! Apart from this ego booster, there is always something going on with seasonal displays in the atrium, the central courtyard and even outside each store like the  beautifully mounted ring currently in the Palladium atrium and the fat, red, sheep waiting patiently outside the Brooks Brother’s Store on level 1.

So we spent the better part of the morning at  Palladium, in the company of other weekend shoppers.  This high end luxury shopping destination at Mumbai’s former  Phoenix Mills now resurrected as High Street Phoenix by the visionary Atul Ruia who saw his family’s textile mills weaving a different kind of dream.

High Street Phoenix

High Street Phoenix is the first retail led consumption centre developed in India. This sprawling venue houses over 500 brands including a variety of F&B, entertainment, commercial and residential complexes. Pioneered by The Phoenix Mills Co. Ltd., HSP is led by its young, dynamic Managing Director, Atul Ruia and his team of professionals. The Phoenix Mills Co. Ltd. has a presence in 13 cities across country.

I was amazed to see two reindeer standing guard outside the entrance to the mall and wondered if I was seeing right. What were Santa’s reindeer doing here? Was I awake or was I dreaming? It seems I was awake and one of the later visitors to the month long exhibition of Bengaluru based artist Ilyas Ahmed ‘s  “scraptures” of animals  as he calls his Metal Art  inside the mall.

I didn’t get a chance to see the other animals like the horse and pitbull which are in different locations  as I really had some serious shopping to do this time , and  I’ll really have to hurry as these wonderful sculptures made of automobile parts and other metal parts are on for viewing only till the 13th of this month.

More art from Scrap

Artists have always been inspired by scrap material and in this era of recycling and saving the environment, creating art from waste is more often the norm rather than the exception. The Kala Ghoda festival has always encouraged art from scrap thereby creating awareness of the dreadful menace of waste. This Bombay based festival always has interesting artwork made from plastic, metal scrap and other kinds of stuff that is thrown out as junk but as they say, one man’s meat is another man’s poison or in this case,  another man’s muse . Art works create a lasting impression on the human mind and the messages these scrap art works only serve to reinforce the need to recycle and reuse.

Do you know of any festivals that show case art made from scrap?

I am also linking this post to  Write Tribe’s Write Your Heart Out On The Weekend – #WYHO.

I’ve used the 4th prompt for this post – Use these 6 words – alas, awake, dreadful, company, typical, lasting – creatively in your post. Underline the 6 words for us to see how you crafted your post.

Can you find them here?