Kabhi Ram Banke Kabhi Shyam Banke
Sometimes You Are Ram Sometimes You Are Shyam
By Daneel Thumbiran & Kiveshan Thumbiran
Main Gallery: 15.10.26 - 26.11.26
Two bodies, one soul, one goal. Two brothers, one culture, one question: Where do we belong?
Using Hindu scripture and history as a visual lens for the world around them, brothers Kiveshan and Daneel Thumbiran seek to find where they belong at a micro level in post democratic South Africa and at a macro level, in the larger world.
Through this exhibition, the artists question belonging from the distinct perspectives of two individuals sharing the same background of a racial and cultural diasporic minority.
Kiveshan Thumbiran’s work asks the question from the point of view of a person who has practised and sought to understand the complex nature of Hinduism, its visual language, and its application using the theoretical framework of Structuralism in “mythology”. From an academic perspective, his work seeks to find a language in the iconography and stories that he grew up listening to and learning from, trying to understand their role in his life and his artistic practice. His enquiry is shaped by the space that he inhabits (Stellenbosch), which offers very little to no knowledge, understanding, or acceptance of his lens on the world. Making “idols” out of cardboard, he creates friendly spaces of refuge within this hostile territory. The use of cardboard as his preferred sculptural medium is a form of protest against AI-driven homogenising of Hindu imagery. It challenges the uncritical optimism around the digitisation of culture and religion and the oversimplification of his culture for Western consumption.
The artist takes the rigid categories imposed upon his people by an ignorant world and transforms them into art designed to educate and spark critical engagement.
Daneel Thumbiran’s work is in the process of adapting and evolving, reflecting his ongoing enquiry into the world around him. Although his transforming practice does not always allow for a distinct statement to capture it, Daneel sees himself as the artwork and the canvas, leaving pieces of himself in every work he creates. His pieces become holding spaces for his identity, because the burden of carrying it can sometimes feel too heavy. His artmaking process becomes another step in a process of life, death, rebirth, learning, unlearning, and destruction. The works created lead back to these themes, but through the lens of identity, Hinduism, and being South African Indian, using any and all subjects and materials to give his ideas and experiences a tangible form.
The artist notes, “Truly, in the palimpsest that is my work, it is my own selfish means of connecting the dots and breaking down Hinduism and my own obsession in relation to this shit show we call life. Through works that are so full, layered, and chaotic, hopefully one loses oneself and one’s own identity within them’’.
