Cop Shiva

Cop Shiva

First Name: Shivaraju
Last Name: Bannikuppe Siddaramaiah
Alias: Cop Shiva
Performing Art: Photography and Perfomance
City & Country: Bangalore, India
Artist in Residence at the Rote Fabrik from: Monday, 01.10.2018 to: Thursday, 27.12.2018

I am an artist/photographer with 10 year experience as coordinator of the art space and residency 1Shanthiroad in Bangalore. Besides, In 2001 I joined Karnataka Police Department.

In my practice I document the complexity of rural and urban India, focusing on people and portraiture as a genre, fascinated with the idea of masquerade and the roles people play in public and private. My portfolio includes intimate portraits of urban migrants, people of alternative sexuality, street performers and others living in the hinterland of urban and rural conflict. I capture the diversity of humans who live on the edge and represent the spirit of our times.

Open Studio at Rote Fabrik, 04.12.2018

Blind Gold

In this work, the artist Cop Shiva, explores the con-cept of crony capitalism using the figure of Lord Kubera from the Hindu mythology. Kubera is the God of wealth and acts as the treasurer of the other Gods of the Hindu Pantheon. All other gods travel on animals, but Kubera rides a human being, to indicate how man has become a slave of wealth.

The corrupting power of money affects the com-mon man the most. Greedy organizations, finan¬cial institutions and corrupt governments suck the blood of the middle and working classes to serve their own vested interests.

During Indian elections every candidate campaigns to bring back the billions of black money syphoned out from India and hidden in Swiss Banks, promises the quickly vanish from the agenda once they get elected and become ser¬vile to that same money.

Lord Kubera, once a major deity in Hindu shrines, is nowadays relegated to the side walls of temples. Cop Shivas's photo exhibition and performance want to bring back this figure to the limelight given its relevance in todays world affected by crony capitalism and rampant political corruption.

The opening of the photo exhibition is accompa¬nied by the live performance based in Da Ra Bendre’s famous poem “Blind Gold” (“Kurudu Kaanchana” in the original in Kannada). The poem talks of the blind cruelty of wealth and denounces the worship of money. It was first published in 1933, a time when Indians were faced with the torture of a British colonial rule and exploitations policy. We live in no better society now. If the poem explains of the then prevalent exploitation, it is relevant today as well, where the rich suck the blood of the poor and lead a lofty lifestyle.

It (blind gold) held a burning torch in its hands

Made of ocean-fire from the bellies of the poor.