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IAAC Exhibition of Contemporary Indian Art of the Diaspora 2011   

 
Srinivas Krishna
Srinivas Krishna

Srinivas Krishna
Web: www.divanifilms.com

 

Artist Statement

When The Gods Came Down To Earth is a public art installation at the crossroads of ancient myth-making and modern technologies of mass media. Its iconic images draw on the sacred stories I learned as a child growing up in India, stories of Gods and Goddesses, humans and demons, visions of how the world was created and tales of how, from to time to time, the Gods came down to earth to rid the world of evil.

My images are inspired by the ways in which Indian artists have been visualizing the Gods since they began using technologies of mass media a little over a 100 years ago - the printing press, posters, comic books, cinema, and television - in a populist style commonly known as “Calendar Art.” Displayed on large-scale screens in public spaces, my images are intended to enchant viewers with their beauty and fantasy, while provoking interest in their underlying stories and the uniquely human process by which such mass-produced images become sacred icons, worshiped by millions.

"The revelation came not in a cinema, but on the street... This utterly breathtaking video installation by Toronto-based film-maker Srinivas Krishna, located outside the Royal Ontario Museum, was far and away the strongest work... causing pedestrians to stop and gape. Genius." Globe and Mail

Bio

Internationally-recognized for its inventiveness and style, award-winning artist and filmmaker Srinivas Krishna’s body of work straddles several genres, media and art forms. He launched his career in 1993 with the international hit Masala, “a testament to its director’s extraordinary understanding of the workings of the cinematic medium,” according to The Critical Guide to Contemporary Directors published by Wallflower Press, London. Masala premiered at the Toronto and Sundance Film Festivals, garnered rave reviews and was sold worldwide. In 2002 the British Film Institute voted it among the Top Ten South Asian Diaspora Films of the 20th century. His second feature, Lulu, had its world premiere in the Official Selection of the Cannes Film Festival.  Krishna’s work includes writing and directing television dramas, mini-series and dance films, creating video installations, as well as writing stage plays and opera. His large-scale public video art installation, When The Gods Came Down To Earth, premiered in Federation Square, Melbourne in 2008 and continues to tour the world.  In 2009, his first feature documentary, Ganesh, Boy Wonder, premiered in Hot Docs, the Canadian International Documentary Festival, to standing ovations and, in 2010, won Best Documentary at MIAAC 2010 in New York.  He is currently working on a commission by TIFF Bell Lightbox to create a  large-scale media installation for their galleries in Toronto in May 2011.


 
 
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