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Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Mythic reality

Photography artist Vidya Kamat says we all need myths to live by

Mumbai : SHE grew up surrounded by mythology and the countless traditions and rituals that go with it. Later, her keen interest in the subject led her to a doctorate degree in Comparative Mythology. Today, in her second solo exhibition—Rewrite at the Museum Gallery, on till July 24—Vidya Kamat analyses how memories of certain traditional ceremonies shape people as grown-ups.

‘‘We need myths to live by. They add an element of magic in our lives,’’ says the Mumbai-based artist who believes that even in our contemporary society myths don’t disappear, they only transform to the urban setting.
So naturally, Kamat’s series is based on myths of three urban women—her sister, her friend and herself. ‘‘The way in which certain events are engraved in our memory, highlighting certain details and leaving others behind, shapes how we feel about them today,’’ says Kamat .

Using photographs and reproducing them in Photoshop in different lights, which highlight certain parts of the picture and camouflage others, Kamat has managed to create an intriguing pictorial representation of a childhood memory.

For the exhibition however, she has borrowed from the Nepali tradition of kumari puja, where the young girl is dressed in the finery of a goddess. The resulting image shows an adult Kamat projected in the get-up of a Nepali kumari, creating a sense of the skewed reality we live in today. ‘‘On one hand we are urban and global and on the other we have the legacy of traditions that have become part of our psyche,’’ she explains.

Myths are vital to our existence, says Kamat. ‘‘They give us strength to deal with our lives.’’


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