Vishnu Size: 120 x 43 x 62 in, Table Size: 36 x 20x20 in, TV Monitor : 14 x 15 in
Single Edition

Vishnu Vilas is a sculptural and video installation that speaks of the collapse of history and its authorized practice in the realm of intellectual mediations.

The installation shows the broken bust of a monumental Vishnu, one of the
three presiding deities of the Hindu Pantheon, precariously fallen on an ornamental table. There is a suggestion that the table had held a television set, which now lies tilted on the floor. The television, even its collapsed state, plays up the image of a clamation man, who makes the sound of a siren, sending out alarm waves.

The Vishnu figure belongs to the Chola Period (9 to 13th century
AD), which is skillfully adapted to the purpose of this sculptural installation.
The sculpture seems to have fallen from nowhere. The image of Vishnu,
however, cannot be seen separated from its religious, historical and political affiliations. What we witness in this installation is a sudden crash of a discourse. This installation functions as a device to disrupt the smooth flow of a one sided history. Apart from this disruption/ subversion, the artist also aims at generating a critique on the history of art itself. Art history is developed around the works of art/art objects strategically collected and displayed in the museums. Here suddenly a work of art collapses on a museum floor, raising alarm. The sound of the siren alerts the people who are in engagement with the art objects. But rushing on to the site, one witnesses a comical figure jumping up and down, making a
false alarm.

This work finds its place against the backdrop of the sudden spate of
religious and political tensions in India. The fundamentalist forces incorporate anything and everything into their premises so that it could be manipulated for vested interests. Even a museumized object like a Chola sculpture could be used as religious and political weapon. But the artist makes the viewer feel how the very same object could deconstruct the manipulated and manipulable histories.

Artist Manjunath Kamath has been commenting on vital political,
social and religious issues almost for a decade through his contemporary visual parables of carefully chosen images from the daily lives of common people. Memory and history are the two forces, according to the artist, that help the human beings to ‘structure’ their lives. But hegemonic and vested interests manipulate the common man’s right to structure his life through indoctrination of ideologies. In this scenario, the artist
facilitates and auto-collapse of the object of art and raises a false alarm.
He identifies the flipside of the history that makes human lives worth living
and bearable.

Vishnu Vilas literally means, the abode of Vishnu or Vishnu’s Games.
There is a pun in the word, ‘Vilas.’ It could be an abode and game at the
same time. The artist plays upon this pun as the installation could suggest
that the collapse is godly mediated in order to find a new abode, also it is the play of the god, who could tilt any kind of hegemony through ironic interventions. Here the artist assumes the form of surrogate godhead, as a destroyer and preserver.

Note: Vishnu is considered to be the preserver of life in Hindu theology. He takes different forms to save the earth and life, when it is faced with calamities. He is a great charmer and seducer. He is a warrior and strategist. He embodies all virtues and vices. He could change the track of history by assuming the role of a negotiator. And finally he would come as a killer to reclaim all what he has saved, on the day of apocalypse.
- Johny M L