Chitra Ganesh: Architectures Of Myth @ Hoa Sen University

This lecture will explore the power of key visual and storytelling devices central to mythological narrative and their particular ongoing legacy in contemporary visual and popular culture.I will begin by looking at the architecture of the grand epics of classical Eastern and Western traditions, such as Homer’s Odyssey, the Ramayana and the Monkey King story.

Using such epics as lens, my lecture will elaborate upon why and how particular mythologies focus on eroticism and violence, analyzing constructs of time and arrangements of power.. I will offer examples drawn from my own artistic practice, while also sharing works of other contemporary artists to illuminate how artists respond to, and at times challenge aspects of mythic story structures in their own work. I will also look at images drawn from contemporary modes of storytelling to illuminate how ancient mythic architectures persist in the language of comics and graphic novels and how they are transformed in contemporary visual forms, examining such examples as the Amar Chitra Katha and Raj comics originating in India, Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series and the graffiti and science fictional tales such as Battlestar Galactica.

Chitra Ganesh participates in ‘Encounter’, a lecture series which is part of a large artistic endeavour called ‘Conscious Realities’, initiated and organized by San Art in partnership with Prince Claus Fund.

The facility for this event is sponsored by Hoa Sen University