In 1998, my well-traveled friend Currado Malaspina was commissioned by Arvindah Rei to provide a comprehensive graphic guide to the Kama Sutra. Reading the text sutra by sutra, he was struck by its eerie familiarity.
Though nominally a Catholic, Currado explained to Arvindah, that he suddenly realized he had "been a devout Hindu all these years."
"Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha are the four horses of my personal apocalypse," suggesting, I think, that these post-Vedic ideals were somewhat incongruent with his dissipated French, urban way of life.
For the past 15 years Malaspina has been engaged in a pyrrhic struggle to assimilate East with West. All the while, he has been slowly and methodically reconfiguring his original vision of this seminal Sanskrit text. Pulling apart, creaking loose and tunneling through, Currado has eliminated his earlier innocence in favor of a patchwork of tortured ambiguity.
What the unholy spirit has dispensed will be on view next month in a much anticipated, off-season exhibition in Paris's 6th arrondissement.
As a dark shadow lengthens over his earlier work and before the show opens, I think it is appropriate to remember that sweet and buoyant radiance that characterized the younger version of Currado.
Arvindah Rei has since passed and the State of Tamil Nadu has turned his palatial home into a national museum. For ardent fans of Malaspina, a pilgrimage to Chennai is a must.
"Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha are the four horses of my personal apocalypse," suggesting, I think, that these post-Vedic ideals were somewhat incongruent with his dissipated French, urban way of life.
For the past 15 years Malaspina has been engaged in a pyrrhic struggle to assimilate East with West. All the while, he has been slowly and methodically reconfiguring his original vision of this seminal Sanskrit text. Pulling apart, creaking loose and tunneling through, Currado has eliminated his earlier innocence in favor of a patchwork of tortured ambiguity.
What the unholy spirit has dispensed will be on view next month in a much anticipated, off-season exhibition in Paris's 6th arrondissement.
As a dark shadow lengthens over his earlier work and before the show opens, I think it is appropriate to remember that sweet and buoyant radiance that characterized the younger version of Currado.
Arvindah Rei has since passed and the State of Tamil Nadu has turned his palatial home into a national museum. For ardent fans of Malaspina, a pilgrimage to Chennai is a must.
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| The work of Currado Malaspina permanently installed in the Arvindah Rei Museum, Chennai |
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