A few weeks ago, I posted about the fall and flourish of Hindu god-related animation and all the while, I must admit, I had an ulterior motive. It’s not that I didn’t think cartoon-Krishnas, six-arm crimefighters and other iterations of the pantheon weren’t interesting, it’s just that I wanted to see if you thought this was interesting:

Shiva

Krishna

Good lord beefcake, hmmm….

No, not really. Actually, what you see so miniaturely reproduced due to my technological immaturity are collage-induced renderings of gods by Brazilian artist, Roberto Custodio:

Roberto’s images are quite different and unique, incorporating, as he himself says, pieces of images culled from many high quality print magazines, even down to the tiniest detail, adding them together to create images that border on the surreal and dreamlike. Unlike conventional collages, Roberto always maintains the correct proportion of the figure and figure/landscape/setting, and then with India ink…

What strikes one immediately upon viewing Roberto’s visions, is the startling power of invention along with an emotional strength that envelops each work. His defining motivation to find ‘Beauty’ is apparent in each of these works, blending and pushing the boundaries of male/female beauty but always remaining respectful of the subject. He has always been inspired by the Hindu deities, believing quite firmly that he must have lived a previous life in India. He studies and reads and researches the pantheon of gods and goddesses, and is always conceiving of them in different moods and aspects. [link]

Well, methinks Krishna is definitely in the mood and Shiva, whose face might possibly belong to Disney’s Aladdin, is already getting his groove on with that lingam (seriously, click the links and take a close look at the images). I also think, just to be fair, you should know that the creativity of Custodio’s work isn’t limited by race, gender or species. In fact, if anything, it’s a postmodern pastiche, a melange, if I may, that opens itself to the world and asks everyone to reconsider the origins of our most popular and sacred cultural iconography. For example:

Maori Brahma

Parvati of Naboo

Playgirl’s Planet of the Apes

I don’t know if I have a problem with this guy’s work, in part because I don’t know if the artist takes his content seriously; in other words, I can’t help but ridicule that image of Hanuman and although I refuse to even title it as such, there is a small part of me that continues to look at it as Hanuman and subsequently wonder about the sexual intent behind the image and all the skin. The same goes for Krishna and more importantly, Shiva (who seems to be locked in the hybrid-vigor of cross-breeding between sexual taboos). The other images, well, they’re technically precise and impressive in terms of collage, but they’re either literal representations of the gods or so disconnected from the original imagery they carry very little meaning to critique…

And, thus, therein sits the question(s): Does anyone find the pseudo-sexualizing of a god’s body sacreligious? Is there something out-of-whack here insomuch that male gods are re-presented as light-skinned, muscle-bound and possibly, horny, cutouts? Is this artist simply manipulating the form so we’ll ask about the function? Does this guy have no true understanding of the meaning of gods or does he just have a heightened sense and sensibility when it comes to conventional beauty? Does anyone find this offensive?

Do you want to buy that image of Krishna.