Vasantha Yogananthan: A Myth of Two Souls

From Assembly:

“A Myth of Two Souls is Vasantha Yogananthan’s decade-long photographic retelling of the epic tale, the Ramayana. Drawing inspiration from the imagery associated with this myth and its pervasiveness in everyday Indian life, Yogananthan has retraced the legendary route from Nepal to India to Sri Lanka through this transformative body of work.

Informed by this notion of an epic journey through time and space, Yogananthan’s A Myth of Two Souls mixes daily life with staged pictures, depicting the whole of society by using passersby as actors, regardless of caste. Often using a large-format camera, the artist’s time-consuming process allows for his subjects to inhabit and perform this myth in their present environments. Many of the photographs have also been subsequently colored by an Indian artist, Jaykumar Shankar, using the ancient technique of hand-painting, a method traditionally reserved for wealthy patrons. Resplendent light and color envelop the viewer and conjure the fantastical already present in the everyday. A Myth of Two Souls intentionally blurs lines of authorship, social strata, time, and reality, in order to construct a new space for entering into an age-old narrative.”