You might know Maya Arulpragasam- more familiar by her alias M.I.A.-from her PG-13 antics at the Super Bowl this year or her hooky, electronica-tinged hip-hop that plays over seemingly every movie trailer on the planet. But drum-machine swagger aside, M.I. A. has a long history as a visual artist, from collages to nail-art designs, as collected here in her first monograph, M.I. A. She is fond of layering gaudy patterns into mesmerizing collages, an exuberant wallpapering of bold, stenciled graphics. Frequently, the pieces are vaguely (or voguishly) political. Guns, tanks, and tigers recur often, allusions to the brutal Sri Lankan civil war, a deeply personal issue for Arulpragasam.
展开▼
