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, the world.
As diaspora in a country where their race and culture are both in the minority, the artworks in this exhibition question belonging between two people from differing perspectives.
Kiveshan’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 of it 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, and what is the application of them in his life as well as his artistic practice. This is further enhanced by the space that he inhabits, which is Stellenbosch, a space in which there is little to no knowledge, understanding, and acceptance of his lens on the world. He makes “idols” which become friendly spaces in the space that others inhabit. As a stand against AI becoming a Titan of homogenising Hindu imagery, he uses cardboard as a sculpting medium to not only challenge the system of what the consequences are of digitising a culture and religion; the medium also looks at how the Hindu religion is “boxed” into schools of thought and made more palatable to be accepted by this Western-dominated world. How much must we pack into boxes and destroy their authenticity to be accepted? In his work, Kiveshan 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 something that is constantly adapting and evolving, but when it is brought down to a point—which is not always possible—it is his own means of consuming and understanding life and the pieces that make up everything around us. In a way, maybe Daneel himself is the artwork and the canvas just a by-product, leaving pieces of himself in every piece of work created. In creating these works, he is also trying to lose and leave his identity within them, to put it down somewhere, because the burden of carrying it can sometimes feel too heavy.
It is 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 materialize these pieces.
But truly, in the palimpsest that is Daneel Thumbiran’s work, it is his own selfish means of connecting the dots and breaking down Hinduism and his 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.
