Chitra Ganesh

Silhouette in the Graveyard

Silhouette in the Graveyard is part of a suite of animated videos by Chitra Ganesh titled The Scorpion Gesture. All five videos incorporate figures and themes from Buddhist mythology and dialogue directly with artworks from the Rubin Museum, for which the videos were originally produced.? The central figure of Silhouette in the Graveyard is Maitreya, the Future Buddha, whose arrival on Earth was prophesied to usher in a new age. Merging digital animation and imagery from contemporary news media, the video depicts Maitreya’s evolution and movements through psychedelic and celestial landscapes while their silhouette mirrors news footage of civil protest, natural disasters, violence, and suffering. Ganesh’s video draws parallels between the myth of Maitreya’s apocalyptic arrival and the social, political, and ecological crises of contemporary life. As it is now commonplace to be inundated daily with imagery of turmoil, unrest, and catastrophe, the artist observes that the chaos associated with Maitreya’s accession offers an analogy for the varied forms of upheaval that saturate the news and social media.