I was holding hands with my teenage self, feeling our feelings related to spirituality, grief and hope/hopelessness during an Arrested Development gig the other night in Berlin.

Image is April in my 2018 Calendar (available from link in bio!): Sacred Heart (2012), fibre-tips, coloured pencil and synthetic polymer paint on cotton paper, 96.5 × 127 cm (38 × 50 in).
The artist’s ancestors were converted from Hinduism to Catholicism via Portugal’s forceful colonisation of Goa, India. Here TextaQueen envisions embodying a decolonised spirituality in this representation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. An open purple lotus replaces the flaming cross above the artist’s heart, it’s bandages unravelling where there were thorns. Her hand signals an invented mudra based on a meditation gesture, a red bindi is her third eye of concealed wisdom and her halo is the purple of the crown shakra emanating self-knowledge. Her robes resemble a sari, printed in a pattern culturally exchanged for centuries in South and Central Asia and the Middle East, and known by many names including Kolke, Carrey, Ambi and Mankolam, but culturally appropriated and known in western culture as ‘Paisley’ – a loose-fitting allusion to cultural mistranslation and disconnection experienced in the diaspora.
#grief #spirituality #disconnection #dissociation #christianity #colonialism #paisley #sacredheart #sorrymum #brownjesus #selfportrait #prayingtoyourhigherself #hope #hopelessness #atheismabandonshope #arresteddevelopment #wornoutcassettetapes