Maaliskuu 7, 2025
Vishnu Vardhani Rajan on kehofilosofi ja performanssitaiteilija. Häntä määrittelevät moniosainen identiteetti, monialaiset käytännöt ja yhteyksien rakentaminen taiteen, tieteen, noituuden, historian ja kulttuurien välille. Vishnun työskentely kattaa tanssin, ei-performatiivisen esityksen, esittävän taiteen, performanssirunouden, stand up -komiikan, liikkuvan kuvan, punk-arkkitehtuurin ja yhteisön rakentamisen kulttuuripoetiikan. Nukkuminen, lepo, konflikti ja häpeä, ‘Convivial Complaint Cell’ ja Infinite Playlist Afterisms (IPA), jotka keskittyvät nautinnon, loiston ja ilon politiikkaan, ovat hänen jatkuvaa työtään.
Vishnu Vardhani Rajan is a body philosopher and performance artist. A hyphenated identity, multidisciplinary practices and building connections between art, science, witchcraft, history and cultures define them. Vishnu’s work spans, dance, non-performance-performance, performing arts, performance poetry, stand-up comedy, moving images, punk-architecture and cultural poethics of community building. Sleep, rest, conflict and shame, ‘Convivial Complaint Cell’ and Infinite Playlist Afterisms (IPA) centering politics of pleasure, splendour and joy are their ongoing work.
What does this exhibition and its theme mean to you? What made you want to include your work in it?
What does home mean to you personally? Has your understanding of home changed over time or during different phases of your life?
In the exhibition, home is viewed as a physical, spiritual, and emotional space. Which of these perspectives does your work connect with most strongly, and why?
Unlike much of my other work, the pieces exhibited at Kodin Kaikuja are tangible. The quilt and the painting are both traces imitating 'records' that resist being categorized, formalized, or preserved in ways that fit traditional systems of record-keeping—unarchival. This concept parallels my own understanding of home. For me, home is not a neatly recorded idea, but something more fluid, personal, and elusive—much like the unarchival objects that defy standard archival practices. It is unidentifiable, existing as a lasting yet transient, complex, and dynamic experience. Much like echoes.
The quilt has passed through many hands. While sewing, we shared countless stories, complaints, recognized political conflicts, and resolved personal ones. Combined with the painting of melikala chukkala muggu, a Rangoli pattern of "the elephant" made of dots and lines, it carries forward a tradition from the Scythians, which is now believed to be practiced in India as a daily morning hygiene ritual in many households. My desire to include my work at Kodin Kaikuja is similarly complex and multidirectional. I couldn’t have shown this work at any other platform but through Ruskeat Tytöt, where two seemingly dissimilar works can nestle together, giving incoherence both legitimacy and meaning.
Home for me is ‘where I love’. Power-systems make us question where we stand and how we ‘see’ and understand what we are looking at. On one hand, homes and homelands are gentrified, snatched, and occupied, and on the other, they exist as intangible spaces of memory, longing, and resistance, where our spirit of belonging persists despite physical displacement. The idea of a home in collective consciousness is more often associated with loss, nostalgia and yearning. Echoes in the title of the exhibition for me offers a counterpoint, emphasizing the emotional strength that emerges from confronting loss and nostalgia. These remnants can provide comfort and meaning, helping our thoughts and actions, can also inspire strength and gratitude. Home for us migrants is an echo, reminding us that something of the past persists, even if it's no longer whole. This persistence can symbolize the enduring impact of what we've lost, affirming that it continues to matter and shape who we are.
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