Artwork Page for The Saint in the Marketplace, Meenakshi Temple, Madurai, India

Details / Information for The Saint in the Marketplace, Meenakshi Temple, Madurai, India

The Saint in the Marketplace, Meenakshi Temple, Madurai, India

2003

Masumi Hayashi

(American, 1945–2006)
Culture
America
Medium
Panoramic photo collage, chromogenic prints
Measurements
Image: 60.9 x 187.9 cm (24 x 74 in.); Framed: 74.3 x 198.4 cm (29 1/4 x 78 1/8 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Dean A. Keesey (Estate of Dr. Masumi Hayashi) 2015.95
Copyright
© Masumi Hayashi
This artwork is known to be under copyright.
Location
Not on view
Print

Description

The artist presents the pillared hall of a temple dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva and his wife Minakshi (also known as Meenakshi, Parvati, or Devi) in a more-than-360-degree panorama. The same corridor appears at both ends, but at different moments in time. A yellow donation box is foregrounded, suggesting that Hayashi intended to comment on the role of finances in institutional religion. The bearded holy man in front of the sculpture of the bull Nandi, Shiva’s mount, is probably the “saint” in Hayashi’s title. The shops sell items used in devotional rites: brass vessels, sacred images, sweets, powdered spices, and aromatic pastes. The recently repainted ceilings were a pious gift for temple renewal.
Horizontally long collaged photograph with rows of rectangles depicting the columned hall of a Hindu temple, people gathering around the statue of a bull in the center, flanked by shops and then the central hall repeated. The same location at different times of day, the collaged rectangles create a coherent scene, but slightly disjointed and under various lighting. White, squared, stone columns supports a ceiling with red, green, yellow, and blue patterning.

The Saint in the Marketplace, Meenakshi Temple, Madurai, India

2003

Masumi Hayashi

(American, 1945–2006)
America

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