The Andy Warhol Museum Presents The Word of God(ESS) by Artist Chitra Ganesh

PITTSBURGH, PA.- The Andy Warhol Museum presents its latest special exhibition, The Word of God(ESS): Chitra Ganesh. The exhibition is curated by Tresa Varner, curator of education and interpretation. The Word of God(ESS): Chitra Ganesh is on view through September 4, 2011. Chitra Ganesh’s artwork combines different visual languages, canons and cultures, including comic books, Bollywood cinema and iconic goddesses from Hindu folklore.

Ganesh creates cross-cultural narratives about sexuality and power that sit in comic book frames where interior thoughts are revealed in bubbles or – as in her wall installations – hover in psychedelic space with three-dimensional elements that protrude into contemporary reality. This exhibition includes artworks based on the comic, Amar Chitra Katha, which Ganesh read as a youth and that is still in print today. The enormously popular comic (over 90 million printed) began in the 1960s to teach children in India and the Diaspora about Hindu myths, Indian history and culture as well as to teach children proper behavior through specific characters.

This exhibition is the third in The Word of God series, which examines major world religions and their texts through contemporary art. Sacred texts are considered by many to be the direct words of God to man. How this Word is passed down and received is dependent on the people, languages and cultures in which it is presented. This series explores the questions: what is the best version of the Word of God; and does the artistic rendering of it enhance understanding or is some essential truth lost in translation?

The Warhol has, in its seventeen year history, presented difficult or controversial imagery and art in order to spark community dialogue. The dialogues and visitor experiences from such encounters with art and images are powerful and potentially community changing.

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