Indian artist's work inspired by Vivekananda

Mumbai: Well-known contemporary artist, Jitish Kallat's huge installation takes inspiration from Swami Vivekananda's speech.

In the first major presentation in an American museum of Jitish Kallat's work, the contemporary Indian artist is preparing a site-specific installation that draws on the museum's history to create an incisive commentary on the evolution, or devolution, of religious tolerance across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Jitish says, "The basis of my installation 'Public Notice 3',is the landmark 1893 speech delivered by Swami Vivekananda at the Parliament of Religions, which was held in conjunction with the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, in what is now the museum's Fullerton Hall.

Vivekananda's speech is widely understood to be one of the first presentations of Hinduism to a Western audience.

Jitish's 'Public Notice 3' calls attention to the chasm between these two very different events of September 11 by converting Vivekananda's text to LED displays on each of the 118 risers of the historic Grand Staircase of the Art Institute of Chicago, the site of Vivekananda's address. The text of the speech will be displayed in the colours of the United States' Department of Homeland Security alert system i.e red, orange, yellow, blue and green.

Opening on September 11, 'Public Notice 3' thus presents an Indian artists take on compromised legacy of Vivekananda's impassioned plea for tolerance in an age of fundamentalism.