The Bite Magazine - Autmn/Winter 2020 - Issue 28

biteexhibition British Museum - Tantra Exhibition - Mausoleum - Ithell Colquhoun - c1944 British Museum - Tantra Exhibition - Chinnamasta - Lalashiu Gobin Lai from Kolkata - Late 19th Century ern India, especially under the Pala dynasty, whose rulers funded major mo- nastic establishments that were heavily influenced by Tantric ideas. Several music artists have been influenced by Tantra practices, including the Rolling Stones. For their 1971 Sticky Fingers album, Mick Jagger approached the designer John Pasche in 1969 and asked him to create a logo for the Roll- ing Stones’ record label, inspired by the Tantric goddess Kali. The design shows the goddess’ protruding tongue, which suggests her ravenous appetite on the battlefield. The iconic logo conveyed the band’s rebellious, anti-estab- lishment spirit as well as Jagger’s own voluptuous mouth. The Tantric Lovers pull-out poster for Oz magazine was designed in 1968 by Nigel Waymouth and Michael English of graphic and musical group Hap- shash and the Coloured Coat. The psychedelic poster communicated eco- logical and free-love ideals. By the 1960s, Tantra was associated with social, political and spiritual liberation. It was also a ‘cult of ecstasy’ that challenged repressive attitudes to sexuality. The pull-out poster is based on Tibetan yab- yum (union of wisdom and compassion) imagery. Kali, the Hindu goddess of doomsday and death, was regarded as a threat by British officials during India’s colonisation. A rather dark and blood-fuelled print advertisement called ‘Kali Cigarettes’ by the Calcutta Art Studio por- trays the goddess reimagined as a symbol of resistance. The print continued to circulate after 1905 when Bengal was partitioned by the British to weaken the growing anti-colonial movement. One Bengali newspaper writer pro- claimed, “Rise up, O sons of India… the Empire draws to an end, for behold Kali rises in the East.” Tantric Hindu goddess Chinnamasta was also regarded as an icon for Bengali revolutionaries. In a print of the 1880s painting Chinnamasta (She Whose Head is Severed) by Lalashiu Gobin Lal, she is clutching her severed head which is drinking one of the three streams of blood spurting from her neck. The other two streams nourish her attendants. Here, she stands upon the de- ities of love and desire, as if to suggest she transcends desire while also being fundamentally supported by it. Indian artist, Bharti Kher’s sculptures, created from casts of real women, seek to produce dramatic ‘urban goddesses’. Her 2008 sculpture ‘AndAllTheWhile The Benevolent Slept’ shows the self-decapitated goddess Chinnamasta with copper wires spurting from her neck like jets of blood. The deity holds a teacup - a witty allusion to British civility - which becomes a substitute for a Tantric skull-cup about to be filled with blood. In her left hand, she holds a cast of the skull of ‘Lucy’, the oldest-known human ancestor. A fascinating exhibition that explores the philosophy of Tantra in its many facets, Tantra: Enlightenment to Revolution reveals the empowerment its fol- lowers can encounter through enlightenment by following the literal or sym- bolic path or those interested in its concept through the inspiration of art and music. It also gives an insight into the struggles the colonised India went through in fighting for independence from British rule, of which anti-coloni- al nationalist and political ethicist Gandhi was an essential part. The exhibition runs until 24th January 2021 at the British Museum on Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DG. https://www.britishmuseum.org/exhibitions/tantra-enlightenment-revolu- tion