Proposing alternatives to the white normative bodies that dominate the toy industry, Patel’s figures are designed to become irresistible avatars for children and adults to project themselves into, regardless of their race, gender or body type. Alongside these will be a series of Transformer toy robots from the artist’s own collection, painted to imitate bronze – the material we typically use to commemorate important figures in history. Patel’s action figures and Transformers will take residence in the Shakespeare Memorial Room, seeking recognition for their role in shaping the fictions and realities of who we are, and offering new propositions.
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Hetain Patel, Heavy Metal and Plastic Dreams (2020)
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Hetain Patel is the winner of the 2019 Film London Jarman Award. He is a visual artist working across film, photography, sculpture and live performance in galleries, theatres and online. Working collaboratively with artists across disciplines, and with family members and non professionals, Patel enjoys working across multiple languages, culturally and artistically.
In recent years Patel has done Bruce Lee impersonations on stage at the Royal Opera House, completed commissions for Tate Modern and Sadler’s Wells, London, and made a working class Transformer robot from an old Ford Fiesta, with his dad. He designed part of a mini golf course for the Venice Biennale, and has created a number of multi lingual dance theatre productions, including a commission for Candoco Dance Company which continues to tour internationally. In 2013 Patel was invited to do a TED talk, which has since had close to 3 million hits, adding to a total of 48 million views of his videos and performances online. |
