Hetain Patel, Canon, 2020, single channel HD video. Nominated and co-commissioned by Skinder Hundal, New Art Exchange.
Patel (UK) explores the manifestation of three different, but equally impactful influences on his body and identity: Bruce Lee, Spider-Man and an Indian squatting posture. Through animation he investigates what happens when these poses and postures are repeated and overlapped, combining popular and domestic culture from different parts of the world. The title references both the canon of culturally dominant postures, as well as what it means in dance choreography – a device where one dancer introduces a movement, which is then repeated exactly by subsequent dancers. ‘In this piece the canon actually breaks down as each of the different bodies have a different timing to the movement, I like that it starts to disrupt its own rule somehow.’
Patel is a visual artist and performance maker who explores identity and freedom using humour, choreography and text in many formats to reach as wide an audience as possible.
Co-commissioned by New Art Exchange in collaboration with Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art, Open Eye Gallery and University of Salford Art Collection on the occasion of Peer to Peer: UK/HK Online Festival 2020