Digital Bodies: An Insight Into Samyukta Madhu’s Indo-Futuristic Metaverse

Have you ever imagined how ancient beauty would evolve in the 21st century? India and Germany-based artist, Samyukta Madhu fuses feminism, futurism and South Asian aesthetics as she amalgamates culture and tech in a metaverse where the past meets the future. Breaking away from a predefined cultural canon, her futuristic landscapes re-imagine an India without colonisation in our history books. Madhu went viral earlier this year with her recent show titled ‘Reincarnation: Ghosts Of A South Asian Past’ at ‘Collage,’ a spacious two-floor Art Deco bungalow converted into a multi-label clothing store in the heart of Chennai. The curation offers a unique narrative that revives and redefines ancient South Asian beauty in a new digital context.

Born in Chennai, Samyukta Madhu attended the prestigious Parsons School of Design. What started as a mere exploration at twelve years old using Photoshop7 has now been nurtured into an internet sensation through riveting portraits of Indian women. A glance through Madhu’s Instagram feed reflects a trailblazing world that consumes one with a neon pop of colours, strong queer portraits and a dramatic setup. Her art is bold and unapologetic as she re-interprets myth and history, and imagines a hyper-realistic future. To paint this canvas of digital art, Madhu’s palette includes CGI programmes and 3D software such as Cinema4D, Octane Render, ZBrush and Substance Painter. Unlike many conventional digital artists, her visual language is not dominated by AI tools. Madhu says, “I don’t use AI at all, but I expect everyone involved in digital art will use it in the future as it seeps into more aspects of our lives.”

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In her recent curation at ‘Collage,’ Madhu presented a collection of dark-skinned South Asian women bearing hyper-realistic skin texture, and sharp facial expressions, heavily embellished, and draped in extremely sensitive silhouettes. She says, “The portraits of the women are all imagined, and they can even be treated as a concept design for characters from an alternate future.” However, there was something familiar hidden within these mostly Mughal-style three-quarter portraits. For instance, a woman holding a mataka or pot has always been considered an archetype of an epitome of beauty in Indian aesthetics. Great Indian maestro painters such as Raja Ravi Verma and Hemendranath Mazumdar have captured a similar mood and the very act of carrying a mataka in their canvas paintings. Madhu’s visual language draws from the past with a twist of futurism. Her oeuvre adds a strong commentary on Indo-Futurism which has become increasingly prevalent in South Asian popular culture. She adds, “The poses of the characters are inspired by old photographs of South Asian women from pre-colonial times.” 

Apart from the stark posture, the women are heavily embellished. They adorn very intriguing accessories – gold Tamil scriptures on their chest and the geometric kolam design on the body. The idea of kolam or geometric patterns on household flooring has been a very common folk art practice in South India. It is considered to welcome Lakshmi or goddess of wealth. Strongly drawing from her origins, Madhu superimposes this very pattern on her feminine muse. “I love the idea of taking something that feels traditional like a kolam and transforming it into something alternative and ‘taboo,’ like a tattoo,” Madhu comments.

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Breaking away from preconceived notions of perceiving women, colourism has also been an underlying tone of her aesthetics. Madhu says, “I think we live in a country where the majority of the population don’t look like the models we see on billboards, in Bollywood or beauty ads. I want to make work that encourages people to embrace their natural beauty and makes them question beauty standards and decolonize their mindsets.” 

Her art appears to shatter a glass ceiling as she visualises women as forces of power in society, bearing positions such as the ‘Priestess,’ ‘the Guardian,’ and the ‘Regent.’ This artistic presentation may certainly remind one of the matrilineal society, once practised in mediaeval Kerala in the Nair caste as well as now predominantly practised by the Khasi in Meghalaya. Madhu adds, “I’m more influenced by pop culture, the internet, and even memes. I’ve played video games with amazing environment designs and incredible female lead characters. I think I’m more influenced by world-building, and even my own experiences as the protagonist of my own life story. Moving from India to New York to Berlin, all alone, and constantly observing and questioning the world around me.”

She is fascinated towards extracting the pop from the traditional – re-recitation of the Mahabharata epic, the strong influence of Tantric yoga in work titled ‘Arachnophobia’, the unprecedented Kathakali face sans the elaborate headgear. “I think creating work with references to my culture just feels a lot richer to me. When I’m able to make something that I relate to, it has a lot more meaning for me. I think this genre of work is also very popular with my audience, and it makes me happy when people can relate to my art. The things we grew up with have a lot more impact than we realise,” she adds.

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Madhu’s digital portraits are futuristic but pay homage to her South Indian roots. Her strong futuristic art recontextualizes long-standing norms and defined cultural identities. Her strong impactful female portraits stand as objects of power. Driven by personal experiences, Madhu’s art questions the canonical lenses the world is seen. Her art aims to normalise the idea of imperfection in beauty and decolonize our mindset sans preconceived stereotypes. Samyukta Madhu successfully presents an alternate universe that reimagines India as a country that is more in tune with its heritage, equitable, decolonised and empowering. If this hypothetical situation was true she satirically comments, “Hopefully, they [women] would look like my artworks!”