I am Manikandan AV (1981), a visual artist based in Bengaluru. After earning my Fine Arts (BFA-2002) degree, I started working in animation.

In the last twenty years, India has experienced an economic spring. Its middle class is getting a chance to splurge like its former rulers. A society that has been in deprivation for four centuries is affected in two ways. It has lost all its cultural roots and is now vehemently indulging in consumerism and pseudo-nationalism.

The growth of the economy is not in proportion to cultural and social developments. So, achieving financial freedom is easier than finding individual freedom. Society is still conservative in every aspect except for consumerism. A society without any real understanding of its culture has led the culture to become material for politics.

For the rest of the world, India is either eccentric or exotic. But how is life for a middle-class Indian today? What odds are they facing in thriving in a globalized world? What does it mean to live in India now?

All my work is based on the dialectics of globalization, stereotyping, cultural politics, and urban experience. I am trying to create a meaningful existence by connecting contemporary life with its roots in a secular way. This method requires a discursive narrative, so I prefer to work in photo book format.

Email: jaywalkeravm@gmail.com