Marvel at my World
Subhash Viman Gorania
10 July to 26 August
Marvel at my world is an exhibition that showcases Subhash’s passion for dance and the movement of the physical body in a rhythmic way, in partnership with his love for comics. Not only does this exhibition effectively combine both Subhash’s cultural heritage, as a second-generation British South Asian, with his passion for contemporary dance but it achieves it successfully to a bold and impressive extent. The exhibition includes a collection of three-dimensional deities, a series of Hindu Gods presented as powerful superheroes as well as an array of prints, inspired by Andy Warhol, each one characterised in an individual and unique movement.
His work aims to inspire the younger generation about the Hindu faith through a medium they are familiar with: comics. This helps to successfully achieve a distinctive and individual feel to his work, allowing the viewer to witness the high levels of intricacy and detail shown in each movement. The exhibition is an amazing opportunity to witness the work of an unorthodox and quirky artist that explores the importance of embracing your ancestry and cultural background alongside the simplicity of taking delight in the art form from which dance takes place. The exhibition is a great opportunity to explore the importance of embracing everyone cultures including your own, and to see how Subhash presents the beauty and powerful nature of Hinduism.
Subhash Viman Gorania follows an unconventional and progressive perspective as a British choreographer and dancer. Throughout his work, Subhash combines both his cultural heritage, as a second-generation British South Asian, with his passion for contemporary dance. This helps to successfully achieve a distinctive and individual feel to his work, allowing the viewer to witness thehigh levels of intricacy and detail shown in each movement. His interest in dance and the movement of the physical body in a rhythmic way reinforces a semantic field of intense emotion as well as the releasing of energy which is common throughout his artwork. Additionally, Subhash’s work also highlights the importance of embracing your ancestry and cultural background alongside the simplicity of taking delight in the art form from which dance takes place. His focus on bodily movements is often characterized by physicality, floor work, swift spins, humorous gestures and expression. This combined with the influence of both Andy Warhol and comic art gives his work an unorthodox and quirky edge. Subhash’s childhood and his creative imagination as well as his fascination with supernatural and powerful beings have played a major role in influencing his work. Presenting themselves through the form of comics, to watching mythological gods and goddesses on screen, these supernatural beings exhibited the power and magic to create change for humanity. For Subhash, this provided him with a creative outlet while allowing him today as a parent, to teach his children about some of the elements of the Hindu faith through comparing the notion of supreme beings to fantastical superheroes.
In pursuing his creative talent, Subhash went on to study Multimedia Design at De Montfort University, Leicester (2000). Unfortunately, after an incident in which he was racially attacked in 2002, he was left with severe and life-threatening injuries. This assault also had a detrimental impact on his mental, emotional and physical health; resulting in him withdrawing himself from the world, and his university course. Two years after the attack, at the age of twenty-three, Subhash decided to finally regain control of his life and aspirations. He re-entered the realm of creative exploration through the medium of street dance. This resulted in what he is now known for, his presentation of a new innovative and experimental hybrid dance vocabulary.
The pandemic proved to be a pivotal turning point in Subhash’s work. Consequently, the pandemic was not only an increasingly reflective time for Subhash to look back over his work but provided him with an opportunity for a creative reset and a change in a new direction. Thus, Subhash used the pandemic as a chance to reignite some of the skills that he had left behind; illustration and design. His discovery of using technology, also paved the way for a new genre of art as he taught himself how to portray and represent drawings through the medium of tech, most significantly on an ipad. ‘Hadouken’ and ‘White Lines’ both highlight his success in this new medium, and were both created during lockdown as a result of these self-taught, drawing and technology-based skills.