This month’s cover comes care of young artist to watch, Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran. Having finished his Master of Fine Arts in 2013, Nithiyendran has since won the ‘NSW Visual Arts Fellowship’ (Emerging), ‘The Ian Potter Cultural Trust Grant’ and his work is a finalist in the ‘2015 Sidney Meyer Fund Australian Ceramic Award’. We chat to Nithiyendran to learn more about him and his practice.
What is it about ceramics that you love?
Clay is a highly-charged material. It is steeped in Eastern and Western art and cultural histories. I feel a real affinity with the medium and thoroughly enjoy working with it and developing my technical skills. Developing and expanding my aesthetic and physical forms allows me to communicate what I am passionate about with rigor. I also have a fantastic community and support network of clay lovers who help. The support of Jenny Orchard over this year has been invaluable.
What is your process for creating a work?
My studio pattern is highly structured, as the work is labour intensive. I’m often hand building large figures and applying multiple coats of glaze. Kiln maintenance, cleaning, transporting and art administration takes up a lot of time. In terms of making specific works, I scribble a lot and these drawings sometimes function as ‘plans’. Mostly I let the medium inform me and try and push clay as far as I can and learn from my mistakes.
What themes do you focus on?
There are various intersecting and related themes I explore. These include: fertility, creation, destruction, eroticism, exoticism, Christianity, Hinduism, outsider aesthetics, monumentality, autobiography, imperialism and much more.
Phallus worship is at the core of a lot of your works, what interests you about it?
I’m interested in the ways the phallus is venerated in Eastern and Western societies. Worship of the phallus is at the core of Hinduism. The Shiva Lingam (a representation of Lord Shiva’s phallus) is a key structure used in religious ceremonies, architecture and sculpture. I consider Christianity as a phallus worshipping religion as its patriarchal and heteronormative foundations privilege male power. I use the symbol of the phallus as an anchor point to generate discussions around colonialism, religion, creation and the body.
Do you think your work is confronting?
I don’t consider my work confronting. I don’t intend it to be either. But I forget how conservative some people may be. I try and invite people into my work through glistening and elaborate surfaces and maximal installations. I try to be generous in my approach and appeal to people’s humanity by amplifying the role of my hand in the creation of my works.
Do you think society is too inhibited?
I think Australia is going through a particularly conservative stage with our current government and their actions. The Christian values championed by our Prime Minister is sadly, almost tangible. With that said, I think art can encourage freethinking and plurality. Both are necessary for a progressive society.
What do you have planned for your solo exhibition at Shepparton Art Museum later in the year?
I’ll be presenting an installation titled ‘Archipelago’, it will involve ten large-scale figurative ceramic works, positioned on various plinths. A tiled white floor will draw the installation together. I’m very excited about this body of work as it’s the biggest I’ve produced and I’ve developed new forms and glazing techniques, after much risk and experimentation. Things didn’t always go to plan, but I can’t wait to exhibit it.
Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran is represented by Gallery 9, Sydney
www.ramesh-nithiyendran.com
Shithead, 2014, earthenware, red terracotta, glaze and gold lustre, 60 x 49 x 50 cm
Hanuman, 2014, earthenware, glaze and gold lustre, 45 x 27 x 5cm
Photography: Simon Hewson
Images courtesy of the artist and Gallery 9, Sydney
