An Inside View to an Artist’s Life and Work

Shanthamani Muddaiah is a visual artist living and working in Bangalore. Bangalore, a city that has undergone an accelerated process of urbanisation over the past decade, becoming a metropolitan center that is home to international corporations and factories threatened by collapse due to the absence of necessary urban infrastructures. Globalization has artificially introduced Western imagery into local culture, leading to various types of cross-cultural hybrids. This hybridity is given expression in Shanthamani’s work, which involves a double process of material and thematic recycling.

Shanthamani’s practice is intimately linked to the physicality of the materials she employs. Charcoal, a material she frequently uses in sculptures and installations, is fragile against force but signifies to the artist a connection to all that is primordial; the scorched body carrying within its layers traces of thousands of years of ecological and civilisational history. The dark and porous carbon surface imbibes everything around and evokes death as well as reconstitution and renewal. In addition to recycling material, such as charcoal, she also makes use of familiar Western myths and endows them with new meaning through her work.

In this presentation, Shanthamani Muddaiah shares her journey as a visual artist. Delving into Bangalore’s changing landscape, she provides a micro view of understanding development and its impact on her personal work. She will also provide an insight into the art scene in Bangalore and the methods she had adopted to sustain her practice, especially early on in her art career. Through the presentation we learn more about her experience of working on large scale public art, and she will also take us through the roll of RMZ initiatives she has been associated with and her experiences with the same.

In collaboration with RMZ Foundation

The RMZ Foundation is a national not-for-profit Foundation dedicated to the vision for a better future for all through its work in the field of art, sustainability and innovation. Its art programs are inclusive, creating access to works of art, renowned and emerging artists; engagements through its monumental public art collection in various cities and exhibitions; art tours, collaborations and outreach and educational programs. www.rmzfoundation.org