The red series are vermilion drawings with cotton/diya baati wicks used in prayer, the fruit of the artist's longstanding preoccupation with gender, religion and rituals. The interference of politics and religion with the female body as a site of worship has long disturbed her. Especially in India, the female body as a place of “honor” is a concept the artist explores. The continuing taboos around menstruation, temple entries, rape in communal riots, hypersexualization and the suppression of the female body are, in her view, issues that require attention. The mixed media drawings revolve around the labeling of women as midwives and breeders or sluts and whores; pure and impure, mine and hers, etc. For the artist misogyny is deeply rooted in India and we have to dig deep if we want to eradicate it.
