When Shyama Golden would discover herself disenchanted as a baby, her dad and mom would typically reply with “too dangerous, so unhappy, possibly subsequent beginning.” Invoking reincarnation and the chances of another life, this phrase continues to reinvent itself in Golden’s follow.
On view subsequent month at PM/AM, Too Unhealthy, So Unhappy, Possibly Subsequent Start presents a set of lush work crammed with surreal particulars, earthly textures, and a recurring blue-faced character. As with earlier series, the artist invents an enormous, magical narrative that flows by means of every of the works, this time as a four-act efficiency.
The legendary storyline unfolds with a set of diptychs comprised of a large-scale scene and a close-up companion providing one other perspective. These pairings visualize a form of various previous for the artist as she explores the inexorable twining of private company and bigger forces like destiny and collective experiences that form our identities.
In Too Unhealthy, So Unhappy, Possibly Subsequent Start, Golden opens along with her blue-faced alter ego named Maya, a rendition of the Sri Lankan folklore tricksters generally known as yakkas. Wearing a fur go well with, the character lies within the roadway, her chest break up open to disclose a brilliant crimson wound. A bag of oranges is littered close by.
The counterpart to this titular work is a self-portrait of the artist barefoot, posed in opposition to the rocky roadside. She stands atop cracked pavement whereas oranges spill blood-red juice on the bottom. Introspective but invoking the common, the pair grasps on the rigidity between surprising violence and demise, whether or not metaphoric or actual, and the flexibility to seek out resilience within the face of adversity.
Golden’s collection continues to unravel as a collection of contrasts. She considers fame, erasure, and the place freedom resides throughout the two, together with the notion of sole artistic geniuses mistakenly thought to function exterior the entire. And in “Mexican Texas, 1862,” the artist tackles the porous, if not arbitrarily drawn, boundaries that tie us to states and nations and finally, change over time.
Along with her oil work for this exhibition, Golden is collaborating on an animated video undertaking along with her husband, the director Paul Trillo, who will construct an AI mannequin skilled completely on Golden’s work. Given the hesitation by many artists concerning the position of synthetic intelligence and mental property, the pair is inquisitive about confronting the problem from the angle of affect and the parable of the lone genius. Golden writes:
Many artists who’re canonized are literally working in a mode that they didn’t invent however that was a part of a motion arising out of their time and placement. AI is deeply unsettling to artists within the West as a result of we romanticise the artist as a singular determine, who is barely influenced by one to a few different clearly outlined artists, giving them a lineage of inventive inheritance and perceived worth.
Golden additionally ties this concept to “the clout wanted to command a worth for our work,” which she suggests is solely one other narrative machine within the act of self-mythologizing.
In the event you’re in London, Too Unhealthy, So Unhappy, Possibly Subsequent Start runs from Might 23 to July 1. Discover extra from Golden on her website and Instagram.
