Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran Trio of selves at the proverbial gym

This work is a meditation on and criticism of hyper-masculinity and patriarchy as it manifests in my life and societies at large. Three versions of myself are painted expressively in different shades of brown in a pseudo-religious triptych form. Glitter, cabling, religious holograms and fake teeth adorn the surfaces to suggest a disobedient approach to figuration. These paintings float amongst a large collage of hundreds of muscular, slick and hairless bodies cut from a range of magazines, including DNA and Men’s Health. This provides aesthetic counterpoints to the paintings, in an effort to parody the worshipping of idealised images of men.

Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran, 2018