DEVIKA BILIMORIA

MURTI, 2018

7th December
Testing-Grounds
1 City Rd, Southbank
One night participatory installation presented by Multicultural Arts Victoria for Mapping Melbourne

MURTI (‘moor-thee’), is a communal participatory installation about worship and ritual in our contemporary age. A Sanskrit term, ‘murti’ is an embodied icon of the Divine. Reflecting on the ancient Hindu ritual of bathing stone idols in water and milk, MURTI invites people to pour vibrant paint upon a large-scale sculpture that reimagines the most revered and abstracted Hindu icon – the Lingam.

Lingam, meaning sign or mark, is also known as the cosmic egg. It is iconic of the formless deity Shiva, and is typically a phallic symbol made from stone, alluding to the qualities of creation, destruction, and the infinite. Inspired by the symbolism and worship of the Lingam, MURTI exhibits a grand sculptural idol as a site for public interaction, viewing and gathering. Through the re-enactment of these rituals by audience members, and the pouring of paint as a gesture of worship, MURTI questions ideas of sanctity, divinity and connection.

MURTI is an invitation to an experiential interpretation of consecration that gives people an opportunity to reconnect with paint, intention and their body.