VISIBLE/INVISIBLE

Representation of Women through the MAP collection

She sits facing the camera, hands folded demurely in her lap, the posture picture perfect. The sleeves of her blouse gently puffed, sari decorously draped, all present us with a vision of quiet domesticity, of acceptance if you will. Until we meet at the top and experience the force of her resistance. A wave of hair that stands between her and you... visible, yet invisible.

MAP’s exhibition, VISIBLE/INVISIBLE examines the portrayal of women’s lives in the Indian subcontinent: how they see themselves, the dreams they have, the spaces they occupy and the oppositions they face. In the exhibition, interconnected narratives of identity, sexuality, violence and resistance are threaded through paintings, sculptures, photographs, textiles and popular prints.

She sits facing the camera, hands folded demurely in her lap, the posture picture perfect. The sleeves of her blouse gently puffed, sari decorously draped, all present us with a vision of quiet domesticity, of acceptance if you will. Until we meet at the top and experience the force of her resistance. A wave of hair that stands between her and you... visible, yet invisible.

MAP’s exhibition, VISIBLE/INVISIBLE examines the portrayal of women’s lives in the Indian subcontinent: how they see themselves, the dreams they have, the spaces they occupy and the oppositions they face. In the exhibition, interconnected narratives of identity, sexuality, violence and resistance are threaded through paintings, sculptures, photographs, textiles and popular prints.

Goddess and Mortal

Goddess and Mortal highlights early examples of Indian goddesses, tracing depictions of motherhood, nourishment, sacrifice, deification. The work presented in this section questions how visual culture across varying mediums and time has responded to and sometimes reinforced interlinkages between goddesses and women’s bodies. It also looks at women’s bodies within the nationalist discourse, through imageries of Bharat Mata, and later, how women in the political arena leveraged this connection to their own benefit.

Contrasting perspectives between the historical and the contemporary raise questions about the constant pressure of being held to divine standards. Where is the space for women to be mortal? What are the effects of equating women to goddesses?
Krishna Yashoda
Citizens (Little Black Drawings Series)
“Wet wood burns in the kindled fire
How much can I work? Nobody cares for it in my parents’ home 
Wet wood burns in the kindled fire
A woman may toil and toil, it has no value 
Wet wood burns in the kindled fire 
A daughter is born, a calamity for the parents” 

– Kusum Sonawane

Sexuality and Desire

Patriarchal structures dictate the notion of who is a “good” and who is a “desirable” woman, with the two often pitted against each other. Sexuality and Desire aims to unpack forms of representation that speak about female sexuality, as perceived by both women and men. Within visual culture and regimes of representation, this takes form particularly in the staging of how women’s bodies are presented. This section follows the formal use of flora and fauna as props, and critiques the understanding of control over one’s body and control over another’s, at the same time it peels back layers on our understanding of sensuality and empowerment.
MY BODY
Sukirtharani is a prominent Dalit poet, who writes in Tamil. Her sensual poem, My Body, describes a lush forest as a woman’s body and the tiger quenching his thirst, as the man who returns to his woman for her love.
Through a mountain where small shrubs abound flows a river.
Along its banks, branches of trees 
running with sap, lean over, 
and touch the water’s surface. 
The fruit, tasting richly of ginger
break open their fine skins
and put forth their seeds. 
Water spills from the hollows 
in the rocks, and cascades from the edge of cliffs. 
A tiger, replete from its kill,
wets its blood-smeared mouth 
at the swift water-streams. 
As it climbs down, scarlet ash scatters 
from a volcano’s gaping mouth.
A vortex, whirling clockwise, 
agitates the earth. The day’s heat 
dissolves into the night’s coolness. 
In the end Nature becomes my body, lying still.
                                                                
-Sukirtharani
Sukirtharani is a prominent Dalit poet, who writes in Tamil. Her sensual poem, My Body, describes a lush forest as a woman’s body and the tiger quenching his thirst, as the man who returns to his woman for her love.

III

Power and Violence

The artworks in this section explore issues of psychological and physical trauma, exclusion and abandonment, and the power dynamics of gendered violence. By turning the spotlight on these concerns through a narrative spun by portraits over time, this section raises the question: can art and culture help change stereotypes and gendered behaviour, or act as a catalyst for social change?
Chapala Sundari Dhar (Moksha Series), Fazal Sheikh
Widows, Pamela Singh
A POEM TO DARKNESS
On the edge of a platform of light 
sits a shadow like darkness 
sits cozily and looks. 
Just moving, unable to move, 
just flowing, unable to flow, 
munches on the story of darkness. 
In the darkness of the night 
no hatred, no smouldering, 
no they and us or you and 
we all along the path was dreams blossoming 
create a new world every moment. 
Shadows that have come walking 
from the town of Light 
losing their features in darkness 
removing their hatredness 
like water mingling with water 
they mingle with each other 
and flow in darkness like darkness. 
To lock fingers darkness has no hands, 
to kiss darkness has no lips 
no vagina no penis 
all bodies dissolving in darkness 
only the existence of formlessness 
foraged with formlessness spreads darkly.
‍
‍– Mamta Sagar ‍Mamta Sagar is a Kannada poet, playwright and translator. She deeply engages with issues of human rights violations, gender and social justice. In A Poem to Darkness, Sagar speaks about the darkness inside us. Her poems are about her politics and a genuine engagement with the Kannada language.The attention to assonance and alliteration in her poems is difficult to replicate in an English translation. Quoted with permission from the author.
The nineteenth century was the time period when the staged theatre was borrowing from everyday life. One such event was a murder case from 1873 called the Tarakeshwar affair, in which a young woman, Elokeshi, was murdered by her husband, Nobin Chandra. While Nobin was tried for the murder, Mahantesh, the priest who had an affair with her, was tried in court for adultery.
‍
Read more about this in the article by Deep Dives.

IV

Struggle and Resistance

Mukta Salve Triptych
Mukta Salve Triptych
Mukta Salve Triptych
Mukta Salve Triptych
Mukta Salve Triptych
Mukta Salve Triptych
Struggle and Resistance questions the nature of space occupied by women, from the public to the domestic, collectively and as individuals, through the spirit of enquiry. This section visualises multiple forms of labour and the journeys undertaken to obtain these rights, showing women working in factories (photograph by TS Satyan), engaging in domestic labour (print by Haren Das) and creating artistic work together (such as in kantha) while also addressing the struggles of women at the intersections of caste, class, and social and economic mobility.
At Water Edge
Wash Day in Karachi
“Mutta
The name I am called by means freedand I am quite free, well-free from three crooked things,mortar, pestle, and husband with his own crooked thing.I am freed from birth and death,what leads to rebirth has been rooted out.”

–Verse 11, Pg 06, Poems of the First Buddhist Women
A woman sits cross legged and naked above sea shells and waves of bright blue water: nothing else surrounds her. Another woman stands tall occupying the central space with her hands on hips, exuding confidence. Through such instances, artists showcase how women step into spaces through an assertion of bodily presence.
Beyond The Line III (Poetry of Resistance Series)
Beyond The Line III (Poetry of Resistance Series)
Beyond The Line III (Poetry of Resistance Series)
Beyond The Line III (Poetry of Resistance Series)
Beyond The Line III (Poetry of Resistance Series)
Beyond The Line III (Poetry of Resistance Series)

Devi pistol Waliby Arpita Singh draws on the iconography of Goddess Durga. Yet, Singh’s reimagining of the goddess raises several questions. Who is this pistol-wielding figure? Why does she wear white, a colour associated with widows? Why has the artist imagined her as a mortal woman? 

A woman with five arms, stands on a man like goddess Kali or Durga. She holds unexpected/unusual elements/attributes such as a pistol pointing at a man. She is much bigger in size as compared to the man who is floating in the painting. Has the artist imagined a goddess as a mortal woman? Does she unravel a tale of violence and empowerment of women?

Devi pistol Wali by Arpita Singh draws on the iconography of Goddess Durga. Yet, Singh’s reimagining of the goddess raises several questions. Who is this pistol-wielding figure? Why does she wear white, a colour associated with widows? Why has the artist imagined her as a mortal woman? 
A woman with five arms, stands on a man like goddess Kali or Durga. She holds unexpected/unusual elements/attributes such as a pistol pointing at a man. She is much bigger in size as compared to the man who is floating in the painting. Has the artist imagined a goddess as a mortal woman? Does she unravel a tale of violence and empowerment of women?
Devi pistol Wali
‍by Arpita Singh draws on the iconography of Goddess Durga. Yet, Singh’s reimagining of the goddess raises several questions. Who is this pistol-wielding figure? Why does she wear white, a colour associated with widows? Why has the artist imagined her as a mortal woman?
‍
A woman with five arms, stands on a man like goddess Kali or Durga. She holds unexpected/unusual elements/attributes such as a pistol pointing at a man. She is much bigger in size as compared to the man who is floating in the painting. Has the artist imagined a goddess as a mortal woman? Does she unravel a tale of violence and empowerment of women?

Exhibition catalogue now available at the MAP store

The exhibition is accompanied by a publication that includes an introductory essay by Kamini Sawhney and commissioned essays by Shukla Sawant, Vijeta Kumar and Arushi Vats. 

This is an online version of an exhibition at MAP, Bengaluru. For more information on the in-person exhibition, click here.

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