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Louise Martin-Chew, Honorary Research Fellow, School of Communication and Arts, The University of Queensland

In an exhibition tracing 1,500 years of art, Vishnu’s avatars offer tonic for our times

Vishnu James Cameron Art Gallery of New South Wales the Art Gallery of New South Wales Jenni Carter

Installation view of the Avatar: Forms of Vishnu exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, featuring works by Desmond Lazaro and Cambodian Vishnu statue from the early 800s, photo © Art Gallery of New South Wales, Jenni Carter

In the contemporary imagination, the word “avatar” may conjure James Cameron’s blue Na’vi people.

But Cameron was partly inspired by the avatars (or incarnations) of the the Hindu deity Vishnu, who sent avatars to earth to preserve universal order.

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