Nitheen Ramalingam

Lives and works in Davis, CA, USA

Artist statement

As an Indian Artist currently living in northern California, I have become interested in exploring my memory of political murals and other signage from my native state of Tamil Nadu in India and comparing it with the popular imagery that I see here. This reflects my interest in comparatively understanding the organized class and anti-caste struggle that I’ve witnessed in Tamil Nadu as against the anti-war and social justice struggles that I am presently witnessing in California. Arriving here last year, it was as though I had suddenly gone blind. In the sense, I could not get a sense of the social reality of this place by just looking at it. I missed the ubiquitous visual social markers that I have been used to in Indian urban centers. This led me to start investigating the reason behind the difference in how public places are arranged in both these countries. My approach has therefore become ‘hybrid.’ In the sense, engaging with the memory of urban sights from India juxtaposed with what I experience here in northern California. This body of work began as paintings that were juxtaposed with each other but has since become three-dimensional mimicking wall murals from Tamil Nadu and signage from California. Before this body of work, in the medium of drawing and painting in the feel of a memory or an apparition, I attempted to ‘show’/ ‘depict’ the material conditions that I witnessed around me when I was staying in Chennai, India with my parents during covid. I depicted my...

Artwork