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Journalism of Courage
It is a curious sight to see a fibre glass sculpture of Spiderman squatting at Chatterjee and Lal, a gallery in Mumbai. At the opening, people squatted next to it, trying to read the text-based work that the artist, Hetain Patel, has written on it. In a style reminiscent of a child’s fanboy letter, he begins the piece by thanking Spidey for wearing a mask and covering every inch of his skin with a suit so that he too can become Spiderman — one whose race cannot be determined.
UK-based Patel’s body of work, which spans over a decade now, has been a comment on identity, with humour. This sculpture is part of his latest solo “The Other Suit”, which is part of Mumbai Gallery Weekend, a three-day art festival. “I was interested in connecting my work with something as mainstream as a graphic novel hero. It’ s an exploration of my minority status as a British-Asian. One aspect of the show, which is on till February 28, is colliding the mainstream with identity, and doing it through humour,” says the artist, who is a fan of the superhero.
Patel’s exploration of identity stands in contrast to the literature and films that have come out about Brit and American-Asians. His work does not stem from a sense of trying to find himself, rather from the frustration of being pigeonholed for how he looks. “I talk about it from a place of being restricted,” he says. “Stereotypes exist of you and your culture, and it is important to free yourself,” he adds.
This collision of cultures is best seen in a photograph at the show. It features Patel in full Spidey costume, squatting on a chair, sitting next to his grandmother, who looks into the camera nonchalantly. “We spent a whole day catching up. I showed her how I made the suit and she knew about Spiderman through the movies. It was surprising, but she agreed readily. Either she really loves her grandchildren, or assumes that we are into weird things,” says Patel, who has shown at Tate Modern, Southbank Centre and Bodhi Art New York, among other prestigious spaces.
Humour is integral to his work. Last year, Patel gave a talk on TED which has close to a million views. In it, he has a Chinese translator, but she is the one speaking in English, while Patel repeats a paragraph in Chinese that he learnt by rote — a disruption of what you would expect based on race. Adding to the hilarity of the talk is his posture, where he squats on a chair. “There is a working class-ness that squatting evokes in me that I can relate to. This posture is my connection to India. I find it very comfortable to squat and so does Spiderman,” he says.
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