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Multicultural Collages: East Meets West in the Hong Kong Art World. An Interview with Riya Chandiramani

Collages multiculturels : la rencontre entre l’Orient et l’Occident dans le monde artistique de Hong Kong. Entretien avec Riya Chandiramani
Élodie Raimbault

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Riya Chandiramani in context

1On the contemporary art scene, the historical connections between the United Kingdom, India and Hong Kong remain vibrant, be it on the streets, in private galleries or in nationwide institutions.

  • 1 Data of the Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department, “Population by Ethnicity and Year” and “Pop (...)

2Despite a politically strained context, with the gradual suppression of Hong Kong’s special administrative status and democratic institutions by the People’s Republic of China, which has forced many intellectuals and artists to emigrate since 2014, the city’s specificity as a multicultural hub remains very noticeable today, both on the scale of the Asian continent and globally. The presence of the Indian diaspora and of Britons in Hong Kong, initiated by colonial networks, endures: the 2021 census recorded over 72,000 people of Indian and Pakistani ethnicity and over 37,000 British citizens living in Hong Kong.1

  • 2 William Dalrymple presented his latest publication, The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed (...)
  • 3 Vikas Swarup presented his 2024 novel The Girl with Seven Lives. He is the author of Q&A, which was (...)

3Events celebrating Indian arts and culture regularly take place in Hong Kong, involving Indians, Britons and Hong Kong residents among the participants. Since 2016, the Indian production company Teamwork Arts and the Asia Society Hong Kong Center have organized in Hong Kong the annual festival “India by the Bay” to promote Indian culture; in 2024 the festival included, among other events, a presentation by British historian and bestselling author William Dalrymple,2 a conversation with Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup,3 and a dance performance by Bharatanatyam dancer Rukmini Vijayakumar, Cantonese opera performer Pui Yan (Eliza) Li, and South Indian percussionist Sunaad Anoor. The fair “Art Basel Hong Kong” takes place each year in March to promote Asian artists by bringing together international galleries, art market professionals and collectors. The street art festival “Kathaa–Stories from India on Hong Kong Walls” was organized yearly between 2019 and 2023 by the Consulate General of India in Hong Kong, Teamwork Arts and Memeraki (an Indian online arts and crafts commercial platform), to celebrate Indian heritage art on the walls of Hong Kong.

4Since 2016, the director of the M+ museum of contemporary visual culture, located in Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District, has been art historian Suhanya Raffel, who was born in Sri Lanka and previously lived in Australia and in the UK. Following their goal to celebrate Asian contemporary art from the 1950s to the present day, M+ curators feature Indian artists’ work very prominently. Celebrated Indian multimedia artist Nalini Malani (1946–) was showcased at M+ on the occasion of her 2021–2022 “Vision in Motion” solo exhibition,4 which was curated by Doryun Chong. Nalini Malani’s multimedia creations address individual and collective issues, like her experience of the aftermath of the partition of India in 1947, postcolonial migration, and the repurposing of myth. Her work resonates particularly with the Hong Kong audience: technically, Malani is known for using the reverse painting technique, traditional in China, for instance in her piece “Remembering Mad Meg”; thematically, her spectacular M+ façade video “In Search of Vanished Blood”, about the effects of war, violence and the oppression of women, challenged conventional classifications of identity and nationality, and was commissioned expressly for display on the M+ building, in a dialogue with Hong Kong’s dynamic skyline. Doryun Chong explains that “In Search of Vanished Blood examines why disenfranchisement has persisted throughout history and across civilisations. [He believes] Malani’s creative vision—her timeless melding of folklore and literature with the everyday, will connect with audiences from around the city and stimulate fruitful, inspiring dialogues”.5

5In this context, it appears crucial to take into consideration how the work of artists from India, Hong Kong and the anglophone world more generally interrogates the notions of identity and nationality in Hong Kong, in the postcolonial and post-retrocession era. Among those, Riya Chandiramani’s art undeniably stands out as an expression of the contemporary issues at the heart of the present ILCEA journal issue. Riya Chandiramani’s parents are Indian, she was born in Hong Kong in 1994 and her work prominently features notions of multicultural exchanges. Playing with form, using pastiche of traditional religious and pop‑culture references, Chandiramani challenges traditional frontiers between media, national cultures, and art categories. In the Milkmade series (see figures 1, 2, 3 and 4), she mixes the codes of Indo‑Persian miniature, Mughal imagery and Hindu mythology with those of popular mass‑produced images found on cereal boxes and other breakfast foods, or on Communist propaganda artworks. The series “Invisible Hand” also mixes imageries (see figures 5 and 6): Chandiramani presents industrial yellow rubber gloves, placed in poses evocative of diverse emotions or actions and painted in the traditional henna patterns used during weddings for Sikh, Muslim and Hindu brides. Both series not only interrogate the traditional attributes of femininity (milk, nourishment, cleanliness, beauty) but also superimpose different cultural icons so as to highlight and challenge their respective patriarchal dimensions (see figure 7).

6Riya Chandiramani has exhibited her work in group exhibitions in India (Art Mumbai and Raw Collaborative at Gandhinagar), in the USA (New York, Los Angeles), in Europe (Hamburg and Zürich) and in Hong Kong many times. She has also held solo exhibitions in Hong Kong, twice in 2021 and once in 2024.

7Riya Chandiramani has very generously accepted to answer our questions, and we wish to warmly thank her for allowing us to reproduce some of her paintings here. Her website6 is richly illustrated.

Interview with Riya Chandiramani

Interview conducted on 20 March 2025 by Élodie Raimbault (ÉR), with some questions by Nadine André (NA).

ÉR. — Your cultural identity has been the focus of previous interviews in the international press. Does the phrase “Hong Kong-born Indian woman with an international upbringing” seem appropriate to you?

RC. — That is completely spot on! My parents are Indian (and therefore so am I) but I was born in Hong Kong and went to the German Swiss International School, and then continued my studies at the University of Pennsylvania in the US. And then I moved back to Hong Kong in 2017 and have been based here since then.

ÉR. — In what ways does your cultural background influence your art?

RC. — I think it influences my art in more ways than I am even aware of, but is also due to my family in some ways. My parents collected art (mostly South Asian art) from their early adulthood, and both have keen eyes for art and design, so I grew up surrounded by a lot of art at home. My grandfather loves painting and my mother is a graphic designer (and she studied it at a time when it was done by hand) so she is an artist as well. I was always encouraged to create art as a kid and it was my favourite hobby, I would draw and paint all the time. When it came to my later studies, doing my art exams in high-school, I always brought in aspects of my Hong Kong (and to some extent Indian) heritage. For my A‑level exams, I explored the topic of Communism vs. Capitalism, exploring the effects of globalisation in China, and this is where I first started exploring communist iconography in my artwork and developed a pop, “east meets west” style. I used to also create a lot of design- and pattern-based work that was inspired by Indian henna designs, and used to incorporate a lot of multicultural symbols and Chinese characters into these patterns too. Today, I think the Indian influence is more prominent in my work, partly because of my studies and partly due to the evolution of me accepting my Indian background more. From the studies standpoint, when I was in university, I developed an interest in gender studies and eventually majored in communications with a concentration on gender, and took art classes on the side where I explored work related to gender. For example, I took a class on murals (which are big in Philadelphia) which both sparked my interest in public art, but also tied in with my exploration of issues related to women at the time in India, who were igniting a protesting movement called “I will go out” due to the lack of safety for women in public. This is the first time I think I really started to explore Indian art, which eventually led to me developing a pop version of Indo‑Persian miniatures in my Cereal box series. I took other classes at university that also developed my interest further and fueled the messages that are contained in my work today, from the way women are written about in Hindu scriptures with regards to marriage and menstruation, to other stigmas, norms and stereotypes that I wish to address and deconstruct.

ÉR. — Can you share a specific cultural moment that stands out in your memory? How did it influence you to become an artist?

RC. — I struggle to think of one specific moment, especially a cultural one that influenced me to become an artist—I always loved to create art, but never saw it as a viable career option. I was raised to believe that I should focus more on my other school work, even though I loved art the most. When I returned from university to Hong Kong, I worked at The Women’s Foundation, Hong Kong’s largest gender equality non‑profit organisation. I worked there for about a year whilst painting on the side, before committing to being a full‑time artist.

ÉR. — Your work explores patriarchal social structures and gendered paradigms. Why do you think it is important to highlight these issues in your work?

RC. — I think it is important because these issues still very much plague women today. Despite many advances made by waves of feminism, we still very much live in a world designed by and for men. I grew up knowing nothing about gender, which doesn’t mean I wasn’t affected, I just didn’t have the tools to think critically about it. I was conditioned, like most women (especially in Asia) to be good, quiet, and not create any trouble. I had zero self-esteem and this really impacted me later on in life. In university, I was sexually assaulted in my second year, but did not acknowledge this had happened to me because I was ashamed and thought I had brought it upon myself. Shortly after, I also developed an eating disorder that led to me nearly dying. Both of these events were not my fault, but I think if I’d had a stronger understanding of self‑worth and empowerment earlier on, I would have been better equipped to deal with and maybe even prevent them. More than this, I am in a privileged and unique position to have learnt both academically and from my personal experiences how much women go through today, and since art is my medium of communication, I feel it is my duty to include them in the messaging of my work.

ÉR. — What emotions and thoughts do you wish to create in the audience, by layering imagery from Indian myth, Chinese culture and Western pop art?

RC. — I believe that good art sparks a reaction, whether positive or negative, and ignites dialogue or at least a thought process in the mind of the viewer(s). I wish for this when people encounter my work, although I cannot control the outcome (I used to wish that I could, and I wished that everyone could understand my exact thought process behind my work, but now I have realised that I have to let go of that, and let the viewers draw their own interpretations from my work). But ultimately, I hope that through my work involving multi-cultural elements, everyone can relate to it in some way. Symbolism is very important in my practice, and there are always a lot of hidden details. I hope that when people look at my work they notice some of these details, and use them as clues or guides to the message(s) I am trying to convey.

ÉR. — You include Indian visual tropes in your art, like the goddess Kali in your 2023 piece “Inviting Trouble”, or bridal mehndi designs in your series “Invisible Hand”. Do you consider that you are gesturing towards India as an exterior influence, a past reference, or do you view such images as local and relevant to contemporary Hong Kong experience?

RC. — The Indian visual tropes are not necessarily relevant to the local Hong Kong experience and definitely link to my Indian heritage. “Exterior influence” is a good term I think, as these tropes serve as iconography I utilise to tell a story.

ÉR. — How do you go about selecting the specific details from popular imagery, such as colour, medium, or motif, to include in your work?

RC. — I do a lot of research before starting a series—and collect notes and reference images. When I reach a point of “inspiration”, I create a collage, and then sketch the piece out. During the collage process is where I experiment with what looks good and what works. Usually I also have a specific message or story I’m aiming to convey with the piece, so I select the elements that work best.

ÉR. — In your view, what is the symbolic significance of the motif of the milkmaid as it appears in your series “Milkmade”?

RC. — I don’t have a motif so to speak of the Milkmade series, it is more the name which conveys the idea of the series as a whole, which is a series about nourishment, power, and the female body. In the series, I was interested in exploring how capitalism and gender intersect, and how this impacts issues such as societal stigma, norms, roles and stereotypes; and the lack of representation of women. I also wanted the work to reflect my personality, and my journey thus far. I love cereal and it was a large part of my recovery from anorexia—feeding myself things that the illness restricted me from for so long. In recovery I had to learn to nourish and appreciate my body as a woman, and grow back the parts of myself that I had lost, including my period returning. With my starting point as children’s cereal, I realized all the mascots on cereal boxes are male. I wanted to comment on the lack of female representation on these products marketed as “nourishment” for children, and creating trust and familiarity between them and their mascots, all the while contributing to the lack of power assigned to women. Our bodies are so powerful and capable of providing life, and nourishment, but stigmatized or sexualized in the process. The works of “Milkmade” are fun, bright and whimsical at first glance, but contain much deeper meaning. I reference elements of the boxes and mascots themselves, powerful mother goddesses often on the cusp of Hinduism; and Indo‑Persian miniature paintings—a form of painting that I have always been attracted to, but realised that all the women in these paintings look exactly the same, because court painters did not have access to women when they were depicting scenes. The final part of iconography comes from Chinese propaganda posters, not to comment on communism whatsoever, but rather to say that advertising and propaganda are essentially two sides of the same coin—capitalism oppresses with choice, telling us we need to consume to fill our voids, and that we never have, or will be enough. That mentality of not being enough was what made me so ill in the first place, so I felt that these social issues and my personal mental health journey were intrinsically linked.

ÉR. — In your discussion of imperialism and consumerism, do you consider that your work has a different impact when choosing to repurpose an American brand like Kellogg’s, or a British brand like Horlick’s? Does the colonial past of Hong Kong as a British colony play a part in this choice?

RC. — This is an interesting question! I started utilising these brands as mentioned above more in terms of the male mascots, but then expanded to include more brands and looked at how they might specifically work with my messaging. Beyond the American children’s cereal brands, I did do a piece with Horlick’s as you mentioned, which was very much tied to colonialism in India. Horlicks is a breakfast drink in India whilst a bedtime drink elsewhere, known and marketed as “The Great Family Nourisher”. It came to India as dietary supplement with the British Indian army bringing it back during WWI, and became a status symbol in the 1940s and 1950s. This very much ties in with the idea of women’s own power to nourish being thrown to the side, and stigmatized, while brands like this market this for themselves.

ÉR. — Your work has been exhibited many times in Hong Kong, Europe and the USA, and last year it was shown in Mumbai, India. What were the reactions of the Indian visitors in particular? Do you think your art resonates differently in different contexts?

RC. — I think it does resonate differently amongst audiences in different parts of the world. In Hong Kong, I am “known” as the cereal girl, but I don’t think a lot of people know all of the meaning behind my work (and maybe they don’t care about it as much). Same for the US. They like it more because they like those brands, the pop style of the artwork, and the nostalgia probably as well. In India, I wasn’t present at the shows unfortunately, but I receive a mostly positive response from Indians, although I have also received some hate‑mail and negative reactions on Instagram from people (or maybe internet trolls) in India, who really didn’t like my usage of the goddesses in my work. Initially I was upset by this, but then I remembered that these reactions are exactly why I do what I do, and that they are not reading about or caring to understand what I am trying to convey. I can send you a screenshot of the hate messages if you like! What was very cool to me was when the first exhibition of my henna gloves took place in Zurich, Switzerland, and I did not expect anyone to really understand it. But all the pieces sold out. This was a huge revelation to me, as whether people understood it or not, they clearly enjoyed it.

NA. — Do you think there is still a special connection between India and Hong Kong today? If this is the case, is it specifically linked to their common British colonial past or conversely does it go back to the period prior to the British presence in the East?

RC. — I think that there is definitely a link, but not one that is necessarily overt and recognised. What I mean by this is that many, many Indians moved to Hong Kong via the British, either to fight for them, or after the partition. The British obviously had a huge impact on Hong Kong and its culture—architecture, food, etc.—but again I think it is not something people today, at least of my generation, really think about. Something that I do think a lot about though, in my work which explores how the status of women in India was impacted by the scriptures, is that prior to the British rule, these scriptures did not hold a lot of weight across society, they were just an “idealist” view of society created by 2% of the “top” class of men—but the British, in an attempt to create laws that would help them rule over Indians and Muslims, used these scriptures as a basis for their laws over Hindus, which in my opinion was hugely problematic in the long run.

ÉR. — How does your use of Chinese Maoist images resonate with the ongoing political debates about Hong Kong’s special status?

RC. — It doesn’t have a connection to the current political state—I utilise imagery and iconography from Mao‑era propaganda posters not to talk about the current state or even about China, it is to draw attention to the fact that for so long, the world thought (and still thinks) of communism as an oppressive force, when I am arguing that capitalism is just as oppressive.

NA. — Have you ever been invited to exhibit on mainland China? Do you know how your work is perceived there, since there are a number of differences between Hong Kong and the mainland?

RC. — No I have not! (Yet!) And I am not aware of how it is perceived there. I would be very curious to know.

ÉR. — In your experience, do the historical links between Britain and Hong Kong still influence current artistic production in Hong Kong? Do many artists benefit from UK‑HK professional collaborations with galleries, museums, or art fairs?

RC. — To be honest, I am unsure that the links influence anything here, and I am also not sure if artists benefit from any collaborations, especially with regard to historical links. I am uninformed at large, but if I were to guess, I would not think that there are any benefits or connections from the past.

ÉR. — How do you see your work evolving in the future, and what new themes or images do you hope to explore?

RC. — The new theme on the radar for me is still related to women, but about exploring the seven deadly sins and how they relate to women in society today. I also see my work evolving into more of an individual or personal showcase vs. working with a gallery, because the art market doesn’t seem to be too strong at the moment and I am tired of splitting my profits with the gallery at 50%. We shall see though!

 

Figure 1. – Riya Chandiramani, Like a Chocolate Milkshake (2020).

Figure 1. – Riya Chandiramani, Like a Chocolate Milkshake (2020).

Source: https://riyachandiramani.com

Figure 2. – Riya Chandiramani, Peace, Breast and Land (2020).

Figure 2. – Riya Chandiramani, Peace, Breast and Land (2020).

Source: https://riyachandiramani.com

Figure 3. – Riya Chandiramani, BVE (2022).

Figure 3. – Riya Chandiramani, BVE (2022).

Source: https://riyachandiramani.com

Figure 4. – Riya Chandiramani, Double Standard (2024).

Figure 4. – Riya Chandiramani, Double Standard (2024).

Source: https://riyachandiramani.com

Figure 5. – Riya Chandiramani, Bride Wanted (2024).

Figure 5. – Riya Chandiramani, Bride Wanted (2024).

Source: https://riyachandiramani.com

Figure 6. – Riya Chandiramani, The Stories We Will Tell (2023).

Figure 6. – Riya Chandiramani, The Stories We Will Tell (2023).

Source: https://riyachandiramani.com

Figure 7. – Riya Chandiramani, Obstacle Course (2025).

Figure 7. – Riya Chandiramani, Obstacle Course (2025).

Source: https://riyachandiramani.com

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Notes

1 Data of the Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department, “Population by Ethnicity and Year” and “Population by Nationality, Year and Duration of Residence in Hong Kong”, <www.census2021.gov.hk/en/main_tables.html> (11 June 2025).

2 William Dalrymple presented his latest publication, The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World (London: Bloomsbury, 2024).

3 Vikas Swarup presented his 2024 novel The Girl with Seven Lives. He is the author of Q&A, which was adapted for the screen by Scottish filmmaker Danny Boyle in Slumdog Millionaire (2008). As a diplomat, Swarup served in Canada, Turkey, the USA, Ethiopia, the UK, South Africa and Japan.

4 The M+ internet page for this exhibition is accessible here: <www.mplus.org.hk/en/exhibitions/nalini-malani-vision-in-motion/>.

5 Chong is quoted in “M+ Facade presents In Search of Vanished Blood by moving image pioneer Nalini Malani”, M+.org, 18 July 2022, <www.mplus.org.hk/en/press/m-plus-facade-vanished-blood-220718/>.

6 <https://riyachandiramani.com>.

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Table des illustrations

Titre Figure 1. – Riya Chandiramani, Like a Chocolate Milkshake (2020).
Crédits Source: https://riyachandiramani.com
URL http://journals.openedition.org/ilcea/docannexe/image/24797/img-1.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 525k
Titre Figure 2. – Riya Chandiramani, Peace, Breast and Land (2020).
Crédits Source: https://riyachandiramani.com
URL http://journals.openedition.org/ilcea/docannexe/image/24797/img-2.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 538k
Titre Figure 3. – Riya Chandiramani, BVE (2022).
Crédits Source: https://riyachandiramani.com
URL http://journals.openedition.org/ilcea/docannexe/image/24797/img-3.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 467k
Titre Figure 4. – Riya Chandiramani, Double Standard (2024).
Crédits Source: https://riyachandiramani.com
URL http://journals.openedition.org/ilcea/docannexe/image/24797/img-4.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 456k
Titre Figure 5. – Riya Chandiramani, Bride Wanted (2024).
Crédits Source: https://riyachandiramani.com
URL http://journals.openedition.org/ilcea/docannexe/image/24797/img-5.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 330k
Titre Figure 6. – Riya Chandiramani, The Stories We Will Tell (2023).
Crédits Source: https://riyachandiramani.com
URL http://journals.openedition.org/ilcea/docannexe/image/24797/img-6.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 437k
Titre Figure 7. – Riya Chandiramani, Obstacle Course (2025).
Crédits Source: https://riyachandiramani.com
URL http://journals.openedition.org/ilcea/docannexe/image/24797/img-7.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 393k
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Élodie Raimbault, « Multicultural Collages: East Meets West in the Hong Kong Art World. An Interview with Riya Chandiramani »ILCEA [En ligne], 61 | 2026, mis en ligne le 26 janvier 2026, consulté le 18 février 2026. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/ilcea/24797 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/15k4l

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Auteur

Élodie Raimbault

Univ. Grenoble Alpes, ILCEA4, 38000 Grenoble, France
elodie.raimbault@univ-grenoble-alpes.fr

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