In Carousel, Valasara seems to be dismantling the idea that painting is synonymous to a canvas with clear boundaries or limits. He has taken common Renaissance iconographies (fauna, human forms, angels/cherubs, the Virgin Mary, Jesus, cupids, etc), and reproduced them arbitrarily across the walls of the exhibition space. Original or complete Renaissance historical narratives are not present here. But these canvases, as material, and their familiar iconographies easily remind me of Western art canons, and more specifically: paintings.Here, the icons of art history have been uprooted from their sources, and are transformed into something different.
The situation offered by this exhibition reminds me of a migration, or a mutation, of cultural symbols within the context of today's Internet-connected society-one that is massive, rhizomatic, without any clear patterns or reference points. These days, we often see, for instance, religious symbols being borrowed, appropriated, reproduced, modified in such a way as to diminish their aura within the simulacra.
Text/ Agung Hujatnikajennong