RELIGION AS A COMMODITY
2021 - present
Religion forms the fabric of India and its ideals. The socio-cultural relevance of this concept can be found in how religious motifs and artworks are used as primary themes in objects of daily use.
Religious imagery has seamlessly been integrated into the mainstream channels of distribution across prints, tiles, stickers and several other objects.
the inspiration
The concept of religious art being available to the Indian public was made possible by Raja Ravi Verma. He believed religious art should be accessible to the common man, at a time when consuming and having an opinion on art was restricted to the elite.
In 1894, he set up the Ravi Varma Lithographic Press in Bombay, from where he exported oleographs to European countries, as well as created them in India to be sold across the country. This was the first instance of art being mass-produced in India, and the first instance of religious art making its way into the common man's home. The general themes of his artwork were mostly of Hindu gods and goddesses in scenes adapted mainly from Hindu Mythology, such as the Mahabharata, the Ramayana and the Puranas.
The images above are some of the more popular Raja Ravi Verma oleographs that made their way to Indian homes. This movement played a very large role in the scale at which the country adopted art, and the way it identifies itself through imagery.
this is an ongoing documentation of religious motifs and how they find their way into mainstream retail objects.
