Lot Essay
Vivek Vilasini's dramatic re-enactment of Leonardo da Vinci's 'Last Supper' brings forth contemporary global concerns on the issues of faith and betrayal. This arresting image, based on the original fifteenth Century composition of da Vinci's grouping of the apostles in threes (surrounding the central figure of Christ), has been configured to portray the same emotional reactions but in a poignantly present-day context. The figures present here are young women, clothed in chadors or burqas, revealing only their expressive eyes; they could be widows, or sisters, or students - but one strongly senses their shared anxieties. Vilasini has captured both fragility and sensitivity in these women, despite their motions of shock and dismay at disloyalties they have just discovered, and the calmness lends an emotive aura to the panoramic view. This work elegantly communicates unease and the questions posed by impacts of political, cultural and religious ideologies that result in conflict, influences that permeate our social consciousness.