Ilavenil Vasuky Jayapalan

Ilavenil Vasuky Jayapalan (b. 1991) is a multidisciplinary artist and musician of Eelam Tamil origin from Oslo, Norway. Jayapalan’s work is deeply influenced by the worlds of cinema, music, and media, often orbiting around the tension between national consciousness and collective unconsciousness.

The notions of freedom, truth, and desire are recurring themes of his works, often entangled with technology and power, genocide and rebirth, evolution, neo-eugenic and Tamil spirituality, all seen through the prism of Hindu and Buddhist cosmology. Often resulting in works that speculates on futures that emerge from the contemporary fringes of society.

Musically, Jayapalan works under the moniker Nagaver. He has been a longtime collaborator with artists M.I.A, Christopher Kulendran Thomas, and Annika Kuhlmann. Their collaborations have been shown at music festivals worldwide and at institutions such as ICA (UK), de Young Museum (USA), and KW Institute for Contemporary Art (GER).
Jayapalan’s works have been exhibited at the National Museum of Art (NOR), Kunsthall Oslo (NOR), Fotogalleriet (NOR), Hulias (NOR), BO (NOR) and Sezon Art Gallery (JP).