There are some images that get etched on your mind forever. Like “The Creation of Adam” by the 15th century Italian artist Michelangelo. It’s one of the most famous works by the multi-talented artist, and also one of the most reproduced. One of its most recent reproductions closer home by Vivek Vilasini, however, also has the potential to get lodged in one’s mind permanently due to the fantastic Kerala imagery anointed to Michelangelo’s original figures.Simply titled “Creation of Adam – After Michelangelo” in a tribute to the great Italian artist, Vilasini’s 2009 photo work is part of his exhibition currently on at Red, Blue & Yellow, the upscale furniture store in Mahalaxmi, Mumbai. It has been presented by Sakshi Gallery as part of the Focus Photography Festival; the festival ended sometime back but Vilasini’s exhibition is on view until April 10. These are not his recent works but showcase his practice over the past five years, yet as arresting as they were first made and exhibited.What makes Vilasini’s “Creation of Adam…” stunning is the Kathakali head gear that the two models wear while reaching out to each other from heaven and earth respectively. That X-factor, in fact, has become the signature of Bangalore/Kochi-based Vilasini, who has experimented with it in various performance photographs.“In Kerala, we do a lot of reading in Malayalam, and later on in English through translations. So, the idea of translation is ingrained in us. That extends to translation of an idea, of an image, of how it can be brought into the vernacular. You could call it the ‘vernacularisation of an idea’. My main area of work is to study how ideas affect people, how they internalise them, how it is easy to engage people when you present them the familiar with the unexpected,” says Vilasini about the genesis of images that have models in Kathakali head gear in famously known situations. For instance, another striking image from this series is the one with Kathakali dancers in complete attire reprising the famous 16th century painting ‘The Blind Leading The Blind’ by Pieter Bruegel, Elder. Yet another performance photo features completely dressed 13 Kathakali dancers re-enacting “The Last Supper” by Leonardo da Vinci.“The Last Super”, in fact, becomes a little disturbing in the photograph where he presents 13 women clad in burqas. It’s titled “Last Supper – Gaza”. “One, of course, is a tribute to the great painting, but more importantly, it’s about identity that is shaken. It’s not about supper, it’s about faith and betrayal. Around the time I did it (2008), Israel had attacked Gaza. It was shown at ARCO Madrid 2009 and was seminal as Spain has a lot of relationship with Islam. The light of Asia was transmitted to the dark ages of Europe through Spain,” says the artist, who trained as a marine radio officer and graduated in political science before turning to art. “Last Supper – Gaza,” which caught the fancy of the top newspapers of the world and was splashed across prominent publications, was also exhibited at the very seminal Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Though Kathakali attire to comment on contemporary socio-political issues is one of the most eye-catching aspects of Vilasini’s work, that is not all. He says he doesn’t think he will ever run out of ideas coming out of this striking imagery but it is not about presenting the dance costumes in a certain manner. “It is just a way of seeing things. For instance, there’s a lot to know about people who have names such as Lenin, Stalin, Marx; these names show how people associate identity,” says the 50-year-old artist.Another interesting photograph is a collection of colourful facades of houses of a certain community in Kerala. Titled “Housing dreams walls” (2014), it is a part of the prestigious Kadist Collection in Paris. “When I saw these houses, I thought, ‘this is really bad’. Because, these are colors that anybody who has studied art would never use. But then, it is also a form of expression of the people who live in those houses. They have a certain aesthetic sense which shows the prosperity of the people and how they show their financial and social security through these colourful houses. It’s about their individuality,” says Vilasini.The artist is presently working on a jewellery advertisement, quite like what the Italian photographer Oliviero Toscani did for Benetton, “as advertisement can be quite a broad space to showcase art,” says Vilasini. That may just change the way advertising landscape not just in Kerala where gargantuan sari-clad and gold-laden women tower over almost everything else but in the rest of the country too.— The exhibition is on view at Red, Blue & Yellow, Mahalaxmi, Mumbai, till April 10Follow @ARTINFOIndia
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