Words by: Devika V Menon   Photographs from: Various Sources

Scrolling through my newsfeed on Facebook, I could only see several theories behind Avril Lavigne’s death and her clone making appearances for her in public before the paparazzi.

The original theory says that because Avril rose to fame when she was just 18-years-old, her record label employed lookalike and “best friend” Melissa Vandella to impersonate her for the paparazzi as the “real Avril” struggled to deal with attention. Theorists say the ‘Complicated’ singer died shortly after the release of her first album in 2002, at the height of her career, and label bosses decided to cover up her death and continued to release songs by Avril, but used Melissa instead. The rumors originally began swirling on a Brazilian fan site in 2015.

The Avril Lavigne death hoax that won’t die resurfaced on the 15th anniversary of the release of her hit single Complicated. Fans believe the singer left clues about her death in her song lyrics. Lavigne, who is very much alive, is ‘mildly amused’ by the conspiracy. The singer is just one of many celebrities who has been the subject of a death conspiracy theory, including Paul McCartney and Beyonce.

Lavigne is active on social media platforms and her latest tweet on 14 May is a snap of herself and her mother on the occasion of Mother’s Day in the US and Canada. Some of the top responses to her tweet were: “Happy Mother’s Day, Melissa” and “Melissa, it’s OK. We’re here for you.” The singer, who contracted Lyme disease in 2013, said that period was the “worst time of her life”, as she also went through a bad divorce around the same time.

This is another prime example that the internet is the best and easiest place to start a rumour and have theories follow the rumour, be it true or false.

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Words: Fathima Abdul Kader   Images: Pushpamala N.

There is a sense of comfort in familiarity. Pushpamala N, the modern Indian photo- and video-performance artist, sculptor, writer and curator, plays with this same sense of familiarity in the audience and flips it, stirring a sense of unsettling because her version of the images might not “look right” and initiates further reflection. Initially trained as a sculptor at MS University in Baroda, Pushpamala worked with terracotta and paper maiche in her initial works. Her later works attempted to use cheaper materials and even used paper. By the 90s, she started working with photography, and by the early 2000s, this extended to videos as well. Known for her photo-romances in which she places herself amidst images from popular culture, mythology, and history, Pushpamala creates witty and evocative images that brings to light the current social scenario.

You attempt to re-vision scenes that are familiar to the audience. What instance provoked this thought?

My work is an enquiry into present day society by using ‘cultural memory’ – all those things that I and others have experienced or are experiencing as part of a larger culture. I create narratives and scenes which may be familiar or unknown, but which connect to the memories, fantasies and lived experiences of people.

Why did you decide on this form of art?

I make different kinds of work. I am a trained sculptor and have a body of work in sculpture that has won many awards and has been very influential. Besides my work in photography, I make short films and video installations. I also write, curate, speak , organize and curate. If you are talking about my photographic work, I started doing it by chance, and continued because I feel photography and film have a fluid and mobile quality that is useful to express my thoughts.

Why did you decide to place yourself in the photographs?

By placing myself in the photographs, I am at the centre of the enquiry. I am not separate from the work, I am also a part of my critique. And of course, I enjoy enacting the characters. When I create the characters, it helps me to understand how these archetypes or images were put together.

How do you come up with a concept and how does it get realized?

I have certain ongoing interests which I keep researching and studying. I collect images, essays, books and films either physically or in my head. I call this my ‘pseudo-archive’. Even before art school, I was a strong feminist and all my work is informed by my feminist explorations- the place for women in society, the idea of freedom etc. I use women’s images and women’s narratives and forms in my work. As an artist I believe that I must connect to all the progressive thinking of the day and belong to a network of people all over India who may believe in similar things. Art history, theatre, film, literature, history, women’s studies and cultural studies are part of my interests and inform my work. But I am also interested in popular forms. All these are sources for my work. But basically, I am interested in studying contemporary life.

Most of the images that you have re-visioned are from a time when the images were either captured by men or created for the male gaze. How is your version of the same image different?

I play with images in different ways. There are not always based on existing images. When I put myself inside the work, I believe it instantly changes the work and makes it of today. The re-creation makes them theatrical and gives them an ironic twist. I bring up these lost or taken for granted images for scrutiny.

Even though your works re-vision narratives from the past how do you keep them rooted in the present?

I use history, fantasy and memory to address the present. If I use the Ramayana it is because it is the national myth and at the centre of the very definition of India today. I am very interested in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as I see them as the primitive era of modernism and the basis of everything happening today.

Although women do have more freedom to go about their lives, do you think there is a real change in the way women are perceived in current times as opposed to the way they were?

I think there are two things happening today, simultaneously. One is that women in a sense are fighting for, and getting more and more freedom. On the other hand, feudal patriarchal society is fighting back ferociously and women are being violently attacked. The attacks are to stop the freedom and mobility of women. And also women and children, as they are soft targets, are the objects of the anger of the dispossessed. The violence is increasing because women are questioning their traditional roles more and more.

Digital Version: https://goo.gl/ruLaF2

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