Vivek Vilasini

Born 1964 in Trishur, Kerala, India Lives and works in Bangalore, India Before multimedia artist and photographer Vivek Vilasini began studying art and sculpture with traditional Indian craftsmen he was a radio officer at the All India Marine College in Kochi. In his art Vilasini is known for working with the social structures prevalent in contemporary Indian society. He is interested in defining cultural identity while also taking a critical stance on globalisation. In the photo collage Between one Shore and several Others (Just what is it…after Richard Hamilton) from 2008, Vilasini refers to an iconic work of art by Richard Hamilton. Hamilton was a British painter and collage artist who, with his 1965 collage Just What Is It That Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing?, created one of the very first Pop Art works. Vilasini uses digital manipulation to reinterpret Hamilton’s iconic image, imbuing it with a particularly Indian sensibility. By using image fragments from Indian popular culture, from news media, advertising, and Bollywood films he meshes Eastern and Western iconographies. Vilasini reintroduces predefined roles in a new context while discussing the modern global age. For example, the work explores how the vitality of modern Indian art is born out of economic and political change, media impacts, and by the rivalry between cultural traditions and globalisation. Vilasini’s collage highlights how our own history is always related to social history – to the mutual interdependencies affecting the development of both. Thus, the work can affect and generate cultural and social awareness in the spectator. Stine Kleis Hansen

Vivek Valasini Between one Shore and several Others (Just what is it...after Richard Hamilton), 2008