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Details
- Date
- 2020
- Media category
- Sculpture
- Materials used
- earthenware, 24k gold plated bronze, bronze, acrylic, porcelain, beads, synthetic hair, digitally printed textile, hessian, polyester, custom necklaces, epoxy, crystals, automotive paint
- Dimensions
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display dimensions variable
:
1 - Three legged avatar with two sided face, 118 x 43 x 42 cm, 2020, earthenware, glaze and epoxy
2 - Three legged figure with triple head, 103 x 43 x 40 cm, 2020, earthenware, glaze and epoxy
3 - Turquoise figure, 92 x 42 x 32 cm, 2020, earthenware, glaze and epoxy
4 - Two sided figure with purple crown, 121 x 40 x 37 cm, 2020, earthenware
5 - White figure with gold face I, 70 x 33 x 26 cm, 2020, earthenware, glaze
6 - Yellow dog with brown figure, 36 x 22 x 25 cm, 2020, earthenware, glaze and lustre
7 - Yellow head with spiky headpiece, 130 x 55 x 55 cm, 2019, earthenware, glaze, lustre and bronze
8 - Bird human fertility figure II, 109 x 40 x 35 cm, 2020, earthenware, glaze, porcelain and epoxy
9 - Blue bronze figure with branch headpiece, 157 x 106 x 30 cm, 2019, bronze
10 - Brown figure with snake, 64 x 42 x 24 cm, 2020, earthenware, glaze and lustre
11 - Caramel standing figure with plait, 163 x 90 x 50 cm, 2019, earthenware, glaze, synthetic hair, optic fibre, digitally printed textile, hessian and polyester
12 - Double headed figure with red crown, 1080 x 400 x 540 cm, 2020, earthenware
13 - Double sided monkey face, 73 x 54 x 25 cm, 2020, earthenware
14 - Figure with snake headpiece, 128 x 50 x 52 cm, 2019, earthenware, porcelain and wooden beads
15 - Figure with tiger face, 62.5 x 29 x 18 cm, 2018, bronze
16 - Grinning face I, 72 x 50 x 20 cm, 2020, earthenware, glaze
17 - Grinning face II, 75 x 47 x 20 cm, 2020, earthenware, glaze and epoxy
18 - Hog human with horn, 101 x 43 x 25 cm, 2020, earthenware, glaze, crystals and epoxy
19 - Pink fertility figure, 66 x 45 x 48 cm, 2020, earthenware
20 - Pink terracotta figure, 27 x 17 x 13 cm, 2020, terracotta and pink auto paint
21 - Pointy gold head, 63 x 61 x 26 cm, 2017, 24k gold plated bronze
22 - Terracotta figure 1, 18 x 15.5 x 13 cm, 2020, terracotta
23 - Terracotta figure 2, 15.5 x 13.5 x 10.5 cm, 2020, terracotta
24 - Terracotta figure 3, 14.5 x 14.5 x 11 cm, 2020, terracotta
25 - Terracotta figure 4, 12.5 x 12 x 12 cm, 2020, terracotta
26 - Terracotta figure 5, 16.5 x 13.5 x 9 cm, 2020, terracotta
27 - Terracotta figure 6, 20.3 x 13 x 9 cm, 2020, terracotta
28 - Terracotta figure 7, 22.5 x 14 x 9.5 cm, 2020, terracotta
29 - Terracotta figure 8, 21.5 x 11 x 7.5 cm, 2020, terracotta
30 - Terracotta figure 9, 21.8 x 14 x 8.5 cm, 2020, terracotta
31 - Terracotta figure 10, 25.5 x 18.5 x 16.5 cm, 2020, terracotta
32 - Terracotta figure 11, 18.3 x 12 x 8 cm, 2020, terracotta
33 - Terracotta figure 12, 26 x 19 x 13.5 cm, 2020, terracotta
34 - Terracotta figure 13, 21 x 18.5 x 12 cm, 2020, terracotta
35 - Terracotta figure 14, 16.5 x 22 x 8 cm, 2020, terracotta
36 - Terracotta figure 15, 20.5 x 16.5 x 15 cm, 2020, terracotta
37 - Terracotta figure 17, 20.3 x 20 x 12 cm, 2020, terracotta
38 - Terracotta figure 18, 22.3 x 12 x 9 cm, 2020, terracotta
39 - Terracotta figure 19, 26 x 14.5 x 15 cm, 2020, terracotta
40 - Terracotta figure 20, 25 x 18.5 x 8 cm, 2020, terracotta
41 - Terracotta figure 21, 21 x 22 x 8.5 cm, 2020, terracotta
42 - Terracotta figure 22, 22.5 x 14.5 x 13.5 cm, 2020, terracotta
43 - Terracotta figure 23, 26.5 x 16 x 11 cm, 2020, terracotta
44 - Terracotta figure 24, 23.5 x 16 x 10 cm, 2020, terracotta
45 - Terracotta figure 25, 22 x 19.5 x 13.5 cm, 2020, terracotta
46 - Terracotta figure 26, 30.2 x 18.5 x 13 cm, 2020, terracotta
47 - Terracotta figure 27, 26 x 20 x 10.5 cm, 2020, terracotta
48 - Terracotta figure 28, 20 x 20 x 10.5 cm, 2020, terracotta
49 - Terracotta figure 29, 26 x 15 x 9 cm, 2020, terracotta
50 - Terracotta figure 30, 28 x 12.5 x 12 cm, 2020, terracotta
51 - Terracotta figure 31, 30.8 x 15 x 13.5 cm, 2020, terracotta
52 - Terracotta figure 32, 24.5 x 17 x 11.5 cm, 2020, terracotta
53 - Terracotta figure 33, 23.2 x 18.5 x 12 cm, 2020, terracotta
54 - Terracotta figure 34, 26.8 x 14 x 15 cm, 2020, terracotta
55 - Terracotta figure 35, 33 x 19 x 13.5 cm, 2020, terracotta
56 - Terracotta figure 37, 27.5 x 21 x 15 cm, 2020, terracotta
57 - Terracotta figure 38, 29 x 17 x 16 cm, 2020, terracotta
58 - Terracotta figure 39, 31 x 27 x 11.5 cm, 2020, terracotta
59 - Terracotta figure 40, 30.5 x 19.5 x 16.5 cm, 2020, terracotta
60 - Terracotta figure 41, 32 x 22 x 10.5 cm, 2020, terracotta
61 - Terracotta figure 42, 28.5 x 20.5 x 17 cm, 2020, terracotta
62 - Terracotta figure 43, 36 x 20.5 x 15.5 cm, 2020, terracotta
63 - Terracotta figure 44, 41 x 19 x 20 cm, 2020, terracotta
64 - Terracotta figure 45, 21.5 x 10.5 x 8.5 cm, 2020, terracotta
65 - Terracotta figure 46, 26 x 22.5 x 14.5 cm, 2020, terracotta
66 - Terracotta figure 47, 36 x 20 x 15 cm, 2020, earthenware
67 - Terracotta figure 48, 35 x 17 x 13 cm, 2020, earthenware
68 - Sentient mound, 2020, Blackwattle buff terracotta paper clay
- Credit
- Purchased with funds provided by the Mollie Douglas Bequest with the support of Bella and Tim Church 2021
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- 64.2021.1-68
- Copyright
- © Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran
- Artist information
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Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran
Works in the collection
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About
In 2020 visitors to the Art Gallery of New South Wales were greeted by a raw wooden structure rising more than five metres which was home to dozens of exuberantly grinning and grimacing ceramic and bronze beings. Titled ‘Avatar Towers’, this structure and its denizens are the work of Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran, a Sri Lankan-born Sydney sculptor, ceramicist and painter. A raucous and celebratory installation that showcases Nithiyendran's maximalist aesthetic, it was created especially for the Gallery’s ‘Archie Plus’ project, to welcome visitors back to the Gallery following the COVID-19 shutdown in mid-2020.
Fascinated by syncretism and the strange and surprising visual forms it generates, Nithiyendran drew inspiration for ‘Avatar Towers’ from the Gallery’s own collection of south and southeast Asian historical sculptures.He has also mentioned the impact on him, as a child, of richly embellished Hindu temple interiors. An ‘avatar’ in Hinduism is a worldly and material incarnation of a deity. But here, as in earlier sculptures, Nithiyendran presses playfully at the meanings of the word, hinting, through the presence of his own features in some of the sculptures, that the works are avatars of their maker -- projections of Nithiyendran’s own spirit and energy into the glazed and bedazzled ‘mud’ that is his favoured medium.
The word ‘towers’ in ‘Avatar Towers’ is important in this respect. While it alludes partly to sacred architectural structures, it also suggests an apartment block, a low-rise dwelling, a place where people live together. Though Nithiyendran does not see his art as overtly polemical, ‘Avatar Towers’ does contain, in a year of marked social divisions, a suggestion about togetherness – proposing that the best and most vital communities are those that prize energy over purity. This joyful noise is not without its ominous undernotes, however. Nithiyendran has noted how the manic smiles of his figures can seem to disguise anxiety and uncertainty.
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Exhibition history
Shown in 1 exhibition
Dreamhome: stories of art and shelter, Art Gallery of New South Wales, North Building, Sydney, 03 Dec 2022–27 Aug 2023
