Artist Trishla Jain’s ongoing exhibition is a contemporary interpretation of Vishnu’s ten avatars. She shares details with I Kaur
Have you ever imagined a modern day Parshuram as a rebellious teenager who returns home after a football match, throws his shoes on the carpet and sits to play the piano with his girlfriendIJ If not, visit artist Trishla Jain’s latest exhibition Cartwheels in your Honour at Exhibit 320. She recreates the dasavataras of Vaishnava philosophy in a contemporary way. Trishla explains, “When I told people that my inspiration for this exhibition was the dasavatara everybody thought it would be a very serious exhibition which looks in depth at the avatars of Vishnu. But the exhibition is actually opposite. It is a fun, quirky and modern interpretation of all the avatars. Apart from that there is also a joke in every painting about the avatar.”
Each avatar in the exhibition is represented by a group of emblematic works with her characteristic approach. It uses techniques for bricolage and decoupage (putting different materials together) to bind mythology, philosophy, contemporary music and literature.
The painting on Parshuram is titled Sun Passes At Night and shows a pair of shoes, a piano and a painting with sunglasses which reads, “Your future is bright.”
Trishla says that the idea behind the painting inside the painting was a joke on the teenagers. “It is said that today when teenagers go to parties and rock concerts they wear sunglasses even in the night to act ‘cool’. So, while I am talking about Parshuram as a rebellious teenager, I am also commenting on the teenagers today,” she adds.
According to Trishla, apart from her modern outlook towards mythology, the exhibition looks at a larger picture. “Even though I use the Vaishnava philosophy I don’t do it in the Hindu sense at all. This is mainly because I use it as a metaphor for evolution — how we constantly evolve and hope to become better. But then at the same time I also question what being better is. The idea of better is different for everyone. So I show the evolution of avatars from Matsya (fish) to Kalki (white horse — eternity),” she explains.
The title of the exhibition Cartwheels in your Honour comes from a song by Florence and the Machine. Trishla says that this is her way of saying thank you God. “There are many ways of saying thank you to God. A lot of people pray and some lie in bed and whisper to him. I feel doing a Cartwheel in his Honour is a grand gesture. it is like celebrating life and saying thank you. God has given us the ability to evolve and I think that is a great gift,” she elaborates.
Trishla describes her studio as a hurricane, “There are so many different parts in a piece of art that the entire process feels like a storm and then comes the stillness once it is completed. So the feeling while I am preparing a piece of art is like a hurricane.”The exhibition will be on till November 5.
