Posh and Becks new gods of pop art
Luke Peterson
Posh and Becks new gods of pop art
POSH and Becks have been promoted in status - from mere celebrities to gods.
Two Asian artists have depicted Manchester United star David Beckham,
pregnant Spice Girl wife Victoria and their son Brooklyn as Indian deities
for an exhibition in Manchester.
They have painted the United and England midfielder as the Hindu god Shiva,
complete with four arms, while his pop star wife is portrayed as the goddess
Parvati.
Little Brooklyn is shown as the baby elephant god Ganesh.
The family are pictured on a throne while David - famously dubbed "golden
balls" by his wife - holds a golden football in one of his arms and designer
shades in another.
Becks, who once had his wife's name tattooed on his arm in Hindi, is shown
wearing football boots and shorts as he sits upon the throne resting on
tabloid newspapers.
Brooklyn is wearing a United kit while his mother a cocktail dress and
strappy shoes.
The portrait is part of a series celebrating sport in advance of the
Commonwealth Games. The exhibition also includes paintings of flamboyant
boxer Naseem Hamed and tennis star Venus Williams.
The Merseyside-based artists who painted it, twins Amrit and Rabindra Singh,
both Sikh, admit to an element of satire, but insist it was not their
intention to insult Hindus.
"I think it would only have been viewed as blasphemous if we were saying
they were gods to be adored," said Amrit, 35. "We are using the language of
religion but it doesn't mean we are saying they are gods in a spiritual
sense but in a material sense. They are figures people follow just like gods
in the Hindu religion.
"From our point of view we take it as a positive image. They are role
models. They are depicted as the ideal family within celebrity circles.
David is the ideal father and Victoria is the ideal mother. It's the
re-interpretation of that in terms of modern day celebrity."
Kanji Naran of Shree Swaminaryan Temple in Bolton, which features its own
gallery of Hundu art, agreed the painting was not blasphemous. He said: "To
me I don't think it's offensive at all."
The artists used paints imported from India to get the vivid colour they
required to recreate a miniature Hindu portrait they found at the Victoria
and Albert Museum.
The artists are in discussions with a Manchester gallery where they hope to
exhibit the series in May.
Article: http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/news/content.cfm?story=245780