writing_womans_lives_symposium_paper_book_v2

SELF AS RESOURCE: ART MAKING THROUGH THE PRISM OF A
GENDERED LIFE
Ruchika WASON SINGH *
My paper focuses on the location of the self in the gendered life, as a primary source of reference
in art making and brings forth the possible artistic implications of such a choice made by the artist on
one’s work . I shall elaborate upon these through the nature and scope of my own art practice which
has primarily been autobiographical. It takes into account my self and my experiences in the personal
and the public domains as points of stimulus for creative response. This however shall be just one
window opening and attempting to understand the several possible trajectories of autobiographical
art. I shall talk about my drawings, paintings and installations created between 1998 and 2014 and
bring forth four bodies of works. These are Yesterday, Once More (2002), Transit Spaces (2007)
,Home In/Out Series (2010) and Cancer Diary (ongoing) ; all of which have been influenced by the
roles of a daughter, wife, mother and homemaker which I have played, apart from, but also along
with being an artist. By discussing these phases of my art, during the course of the paper, I seek to
bring forth that the implications of the ‘genderised self’ of the artist can be both powerful and
critical, in shaping the concept, process, visual forms and / or the materiality of the artist’s work.
The artistic choices made by the woman artist percolate from the conditioning of an emotional,
biological and physiological gendered self.
Since 1998 with adaptations to new roles, the shifts in the stages in my life brought new phases in
my art as well. In other words the visual narratives in my art almost ran parallel to the real life
narratives which I experienced. 1 The representation of these gendered narratives of my life have
been characterized by the absence of the very body through which I underwent the experiences 2 .
This is to say that barring a few, my works are largely non‐figurative. I chose to explore the
expression of the experiences through the places, spaces and objects encountered by the body. This
also made my works metaphorical in nature, charting an alternative route for representations on
paper, canvas and in the installations I made with found objects. Though many of my experiences
have been generated within the landscape of the Punjabi‐Sikh culture to which I belong, there have
been no conscious cultural or regional references in my works either in form or style. Instead, in
some works it is my mobility as an artist and familiarization with other cultures, which has
contributed towards a more global articulation of my experiences as a woman and find universal
affiliations for them.
Artist mothered – In 1998 as an art student in the Masters’ program, the memory of
‘experiencing maternal’ began to surface in my art. It continued well into the beginning of the next
decade. As I recalled the past experiences of being a daughter, with moments of confrontation in
spaces with pre‐defined movements; I found myself intuitively connecting to forms such as grills,
gates, fences and barricades I saw in the architectural constructions around me . In a way these
forms resonated similar meaning, which I wanted to recall in my experience. Their functionality
provided me with both the conceptual meaning and emotional quotient I needed to emote, without
depicting my own self in the works. I began to use these forms to create confined spaces, suggestive
of demarcations and restricted movement .Creating imaginary spaces which were indirect
representations of having been in socially monitored spaces in the past 3 resulted in a body of works
called Yesterday, Once More on paper and canvas.
*
BFA College of Art - New Delhi, India
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