Om namah śivāya
2017
black wall pain, indian pigments, rice starch
The Greenhouse Deptford cafe
Drawing installation based on sketches made in Varanasi / Benares.
Varanasi - Benares - one of the most sacred cities in the world. The home of Lord Shiva - the destroyer and transformer. Everywhere you look there is a God: how many eyes, how many genitals one can have? The most spectacular graffiti I have ever seen. The mantra ”Oṁ namaḥ śivāya" (I bow to Shiva) chanted all around. The smell. The burning ghats. A funeral. A group of people carrying a dead body. A human leg stretching out from the fire. People don’t pay any particular attention to it. In the night they stay nearby the fire to keep warm. The river. Huge like a sea, dirty and smelly. The holy water washing away the sins. The streets crowded by all sort of creatures. Cows, dogs, goats, cats, birds of pray - all living their independent lives along humans.
The installation is an attempt to recreate the unique atmosphere of the place in the hope of creating an intercultural exchange and understanding.
Drawings occupy the wall in the Greenhouse Deptford cafe and were done as a part of the visual arts festival focused on public space in Deptford - Deptford X.
