Pushpamala N.
The Arrival of Vasco da Gama (After an 1898 painting by José Veloso Salgado) 2014
I’ve been making photo-performance works for some time now, but this was the first one I based on a history painting. My work is usually quite tongue-in-cheek and here I am: a woman playing a very macho, buccaneering character who was extremely cruel and ruthless. In fact, people often don’t recognise it’s me.
My picture is based on a painting made by José Veloso Salgado in 1898 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Vasco da Gama’s discovery of a sea route to India. The Portuguese explorer stands in the centre of the painting, in front of the Zamorin, the King of Calicut, whose courtiers sit higgledy-piggledy all around him, wearing a mixture of costumes from different periods and geographies. It is supposed to be a history painting, but everything in it is wrong, historically. It’s an illustration of a national myth.
Evidence was found later that the Zamorin refused to give Vasco da Gama an audience as the gifts he had brought were paltry. Also, another sailor – some say he was Arab, some say he was Gujarati – had helped him to cross the Arabian Sea from Malindi on the Eastern coast of Africa to the Malabar Coast, as Europeans at that time did not know how to cross the open seas. He would never have reached India otherwise. This was the first step towards the colonisation and domination of India by European powers. While Vasco da Gama is known as a national hero in Portugal, today in India he is considered a pirate.
Usually, I take several months to produce a work, but I only had three weeks to make this one. I rented a film studio and rang up some artist friends to play the roles. We worked at super speed to make the sets, props and accessories – the Portuguese soldier’s armour is fashioned out of stiff buckram cloth. It’s very DIY, which reminds people of school plays and having fun as kids dressing up.
Ten years later, this picture is still alive for me. I did a lot of reading and research for the project, and am still developing it to this day.
The Arrival of Vasco da Gama (After an 1898 painting by José Veloso Salgado) was purchased with funds provided by the Photography Acquisitions Committee and the South Asia Acquisitions Committee in 2022.
It is included in Capturing the Moment, Tate Modern, 13 June 2023 – 28 January 2024.
Pushpamala N. is an artist, writer and curator who lives and works in Bangalore.