Rajni Perera’s work is a wondrous fusion of different mythologies, cultures and viewpoints. Her wildly colored drawings combine Hindu imagery, pre-historic animal beasts, galaxy prints produced by the Hubble Deep Field Telescope and the figures of exotic women. She works with techniques and symbols from Indian miniaturist art, Blaxploitation and pop culture references, forming her very own mythology.

JuxtapozRajniPerera00 JuxtapozRajniPerera04 JuxtapozRajniPerera05 JuxtapozRajniPerera06 JuxtapozRajniPerera07 JuxtapozRajniPerera09 JuxtapozRajniPerera10 JuxtapozRajniPerera12 JuxtapozRajniPerera13 tumblr_mxelejekVM1qh3qhso1_1280 tumblr_n9dsaroCWh1qh3qhso1_1280 tumblr_n9x1enQ1191qh3qhso1_1280Born in Sri Lanka, Perera is drawing on her own immigrant background and her transient state moving between Eastern and Western cultures to illustrate a unique standpoint that it both specific and universal. Her work is an exploration of what it means to be cross cultural in today’s world, and is her trying to dissect those layers in a way she, and us, can understand. A big subject in her work is the representation of female sexuality, and also the presentation of Asian and South Asian cultures in a predominately male Caucasian world. But she says perhaps it isn’t that straight forward.

I don’t know if I really want to make statements about racial prejudice, at least maybe I feel I’ve moved past that in my work. More like I try to make images questioning the projected, or fabricated sexuality behind circulated images (be it on screen, print or the web) of the colored female body in pop culture or otherwise, i.e. ethnic pornography. (Source)

We’ve all seen them- they’re these hyper-stereotypical web images of African girls in beads and wood, Japanese girls in kimonos, and Indian girls in saris; all very subservient, all very saleable; this is my point. There’s something for sale there. (Source)

For Perera the thing that is a common thread connecting Eastern and Western cultures is Kitsch: The idea of culture being re-appropriated by, or passed between, one another. Hollywood and Bollywood are essentially two heads of the same beast, and Perera certainly draws that beast spectacularly.

Rajni Perera’s Work Is A Beautiful Collision Of Hinduism, Sexuality and Reptiles appeared first on Beautiful/Decay Artist & Design.