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Hetain Patel; (born 1980 in Bolton, UK) is an English visual artist specialised in performance, sculpture, video and photography. His work has been exhibited in Norway, India, Belgium and throughout the UK.

Early life and work
Hetain Patel was born and raised in a working-class Asian household that partook in Gujarati traditions. Due to the extent of racial abuse Patel was subjected to from his wider community he found “just walking from the house to the car was difficult.”

As a child Patel developed a keen interest in superhero movies, playing as Spider-man in his grandmother’s house. Patel was eager to conceal his ethnic identity using the Spider-man mask stating: “...what I wanted to be most when I grew up was white.”

What makes Patel stand out as a contemporary artist is his innovative thinking, flexibility, and boundary-breaking. He proved that multiple times in his performances throughout connecting comedy with more serious topics like cultural identity. Viewers can notice that in some of his artwork that happens to be associated with pop-culture superheroes such as Spider-man. Besides sci-fi and mainstream influenced works, Patel experiments with addressing problems of multiculturalism and self-acceptance.

The brutal alienation and racial abuse Patel suffered growing up motivates him to produce art that is inclusive, uplifts and appreciates marginalised groups. As Patel became older a major inspiration became his father who worked at a day job converting cars, inspiring him to create his first sculpture. Patel converted his first car, gifted by his father in 1997, into his first sculpture ‘Fiesta Transformer’. The converted Ford Fiesta sculpture has become a symbol of the working-class. Patel’s attraction to fantasticism along with movies such as Transformers influenced his sculpture, hence the title ‘Fiesta Transformer’.

Patel’s exploration of identity and culture is a key feature and common theme throughout his work.  'Sacred Bodies' (2004/5) is a collection of self-portraits in which Patel tries to better understand his Indian cultural heritage. To create each piece, he covered his upper body in patterns using henna (a pigment used for Mehndi body art) and a red pigment used for markings of cultural importance in Hindu communities.

In 2013 he made his debut at TED Global conference in Edinburgh. During his 9 minutes of storytelling, Patel speaks about assumptions and expectations made on how people look like, sound, their heritage, gender or race, and class. Hetain puts emphasis on a fact that even if imitating our role models fails we still might learn and discover ourselves through copying them.

Performance

 * Reflected Identity, Wolverhamptoon Art Gallery, UK, 2005


 * TEN, British Council’s Edinburgh Showcase in Edinburgh, UK, 2011


 * Be Like Water, Royal Opera House in London, UK, 2013
 * Let’s Talk About Dis, commision for dance company Condoco in London, UK and national tour, 2014
 * American Boy, Coda Festival in Oslo, Norway, 2015

Films and video

 * Musselman (2006)
 * Kankin Raga (2007)
 * Its Growing on Me (2008)
 * To Dance like your Dad (2009)
 * The First Dance (2012)
 * Mama (2012)
 * Being Chongquing (2012)
 * Maestro (2014)
 * Heaven & Earth (2014)
 * God is a DJ (2014)
 * The Jump (2015)
 * The Other Suit (2015)
 * Don’t look at the Finger (2017)

Sculpture

 * Fiesta Transformer, C-Mine, Genk, Belgium (2014)

Photography

 * Lagan, Bolten Museum and Art Gallery, UK, 2004
 * At Home, Chatterjee & Lal, Mumbai, India, and New Art Exchange, Nottingham, UK, 2012 and MAC Birmingham, UK, 2013/14

Education

 * Diploma Foundation Studies in Art and Design, The University of Salford, UK, 2000
 * BA Hons Fine Art, The Nottingham Trent University, UK, 2003
 * Visiting Lecturer, The Nottingham Trent University, UK, ongoing

Selected awards

 * Decibel Award awarded by Arts Council England, 2004
 * Nottingham Creative Business of the Year, 2008
 * Satyajit Ray Short Film Award, 2009
 * Jerwood Choreographic Research Project, 2017
 * Film London Jarman Award, 2019
 * Best International Film awarded by Kino Der Kunst in Munich, Germany, 2020