“The Lungi” is takes on new meaning where Gopakumar and all others who wear this traditional garment are seen as fellow voyagers in their daily comforts and discomforts. For the artist it does not matter whether Lungi wearing compatriots are in agricultural fields, in markets or even at home. In his artworks the artist uses this nearly ubiquitous garment as a powerful visual tool to acknowledge the lives, the work, the ideas, the sweat and the tears of tens of millions of people.

As Lungis can be worn by men and/or women Gopakumar is addressing all people, not only those in South Asia, but people anywhere in the world where life is based on traditional values and is, quite often, made very difficult due to economic oppression and the exploitation of natural and labor resources by multinational corporations and complicit governments. It is clear that Gopakumar has been strongly influenced by conceptual art, particularly the appropriation of everyday objects as seen in the work of Marcel Duchamp, Tracey Emin and Joseph Kosuth.

Dr. John Antoine Labadie

This serial works exhibited in 2014 Critical Juncture, Kochi-Muziris Biennale (Collateral Projects), Kochi, India (exhibition and residency) http://criticaljuncture.info/CONCEPT.html www.kochimuzirisbiennale.org

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