ASHOK RAJAMANI
pulitzer prize-luminary commended author
"OF RELIGION & RAPE"
A major theme in Ashok's work is the conflation of spirituality and sexuality.
Here are two pieces created decades apart, which best show this combination and collapse,
via rape and sexual domination.
THE GOPIS
Charcoal Drawing 4' by 9' FRAMED, 1995.
The reimagining of the seduction and sex play by Lord Krishna (considered God by Hindus) and the Gopis (shepherd women). The the scene as an extreme realm of sadistic gay sexual bacchanalia. The Gopis are now men raped in religious ecstasy – dressed in the garb and dreamscape of sadism and masochism. The Dark Lord – faceless -- is now master of these men – these Gopis – who serve him in in the ecstasy of their rapes.
Ink/digital illustration, 36" x 24, " 2018. Re-imagining of the Biblical Tale of Samson -- in which he sleeps before he is Raped by Deliliah (Ashok believes her chopping of his hair is a form of rape -- an act of domination in which he has no control and gives no consent.
Ashok has delivered this reimagining to show his nude lounging, his sleep, the night before experiencing one of the most painful catscans of his life in preparation of his brain surgery.
Why the parental advisory sign on the left? To present the censorship of his figure which will soon be revealed unwillingly in the rape of his body.
SELF-PORTRAIT 2018: SAMSON
