THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: There is more to a signature than fancy curves and exotic flourishes. It gives away a person in manifolds, proving an interesting study for history-mongers. And Kerala might well lead the way in transforming signatures to objects of interest with a Museum of Signatures, a first-of-its-kind experiment in boutique museum, all set to come up in the capital. The Archives Department, which has a handsome collection of signatures in its archive and is busy collecting signatures of living personalities, is behind the initiative. If things move as planned, the Museum of Signatures would come up in a year’s time inside the Vyloppilli Samskriti Bhavan adjacent to the Directorate of Archives. The idea has been given a green signal by the State Government. The Keralam Museum Consultants have been given the onus of setting up the museum. “A signature is not putting down your name in a peculiar fashion. It is a mirror to your personality. It has no death. The reason, why we thought it could prove an interesting study and research material for many, specially when it is transformed into a museum,” says Archives Director J Rejikumar. The department has nearly 200 signatures in its collection, right from Gandhiji’s to Kamal Hassan’s. It has also collected signatures from guests to the state like Nobel laureates. Signatures of personalities from various walks of social life have been collected so far under one of its prestigious project which was kicked off during the LDF Government’s time by poet O N V Kurup. “The real challenge is to transform a mere pen writing to a Museum specimen. Since the signature in itself is not an object which can retain the curiosity of a visitor for too long, it would depend on the methods and techniques adopted in setting it up to attract the visitor,” says R Chandran Pillai, senior consultant with Keralam Museum.According to him, the museum would employ chemical etching to transform the signatures from the book to the specimen. It would not be a digital version of the signature, instead, it would be transformed to a copper metal and installed in a gallery. “The highlight of the museum is that we have conceptualised it as a movable gallery. The specimens or the whole gallery could be moved to another gallery or hall without tampering the contents. The signatures would carry a profile of the personality. It would be like a short-cut to the person,” Chandran Pillai says. Though a couple of libraries in India have tried collecting signatures and showcasing them, Museum of Signatures would be a first-of-its-kind where it would be transformed into a Museology concept, that too embracing innovative methods.
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