All About Matilda

It’s almost a good thing that not many in our country have heard of Matilda La Mora. And her brand of ‘Hindu-Spanish’ pop art. Or the fact that one of the several admirers of her work is a certain Mr Pedro Almodovar. Because La Mora,in her attempt to interpret Indian obsessions (mostly religious) through a Spanish idiom,often treads tricky grounds. Kitschy,risqué and irreverent —Matilda’s representation of Indian gods might well invite the ire of the likes of Shiv Sena. Sample this: a piece called ‘Love Bullets’ has young Krishna in his typical dance-like pose. Accompanying him in the same frame are red thermocol hearts and a fake pistol. You might want to read it as a depiction of the turbulence that love lands your life in as opposed to its pristine representation in the dictionary of religion in our country. Then there’s a half-foot tall idol of a deity that uncannily resembles Santoshi Maa with the difference of her ammunition being replaced with wads of Indian rupees. La Mora’s critique of the commercialization of religion in India is almost obvious. She agrees that there are things that she detests about the country,like there are things she can never have enough of. “Crowd behaviour,an inclination towards classification are some things I don’t understand. But then again I can’t describe in words how visually appealing the country is. And how there’s art hidden in every nook and corner of the country,” says La Mora.

The Barcelona-born self-taught artist came to India for the first time nearly twenty years back. And its contradictions kept drawing her back to the country for several times ever since. Her latest artwork intends to interpret Indian cultural icons from a Spanish,or an outsider’s point of view. The Indo-Spanish Mexican Box neatly sums up La Mora’s stance as an artist. The foot-tall box has a figurine clad in a saree – almost a cross between a temple dancer and the stereotype of a seductress in old Indian films – along with a cut out of a Spanish dancer duo. “I have tried drawing parallels between the cultures too,pointing out the differences subtly,” says La Mora.