Azaria Chamberlain is alive and well and living in Puducherry

The Kingpins
Great Undead
Kaliman Gallery, Paddington
until 27 October

Left: ©The Kingpins (and Jaya Arts and Digital), Crotchet Trilogy 2007, oil on canvas. Courtesy the artists and Kaliman Gallery Sydney.

Oh what fun! Art as entertainment.

Thursday night's opening on Sutherland street denuded other worthy exhibitions as hipsters flocked to the show of the moment - the fab four's garish installation of painting, embroidery and sculpture (but no plasmas, whew!), which is a gorgeous goddess-fest; an orgy of kitsch that encapsulates all sorts of delicious cultural connundrums.

Having others do your paintings is a tradition that goes back to the ateliers of the rennaissance, ironically refreshed along the way by Duchamp, Warhol and Koons, and the danger is that if that's the only joke then we've heard it many times before. Thankfully with the KPs, it's not - it's just one more irony among many. All (?) the paintings were done by two Pondicherry (Tamil Nadu, or more correctly Puducherry Union Territory) outfits - Muthu Arts and Jaya Arts and Digital - and stylistically they evoke the lurid depictions of deities and (culturally interchangeable?) cinematic billboard narratives seen throughout India. The implicit cultual commentary is fabulous. I'm sure the artists were paid fairly, but the idea that Australia now sources art production (along with programming and call centre services) from the developing world is irresistible.

In terms of imagery, there's something for everybody (with a sense of humour). Azaria Lives! proclaim several small canvasses, and she manifests as a variable amalgam of Xena/Dingo/Thylocene Woman/Screen Siren (with crotchetted accessories, see left) across a range of larger works. There's also the appliqué backdrop from their Great Undead and Let's dance performances.

Oh, and Kaliman has a new blog, where you can see pix of the opening and find out more about the artists' antics: http://kalimangallery.blogspot.com/