Come closer?
My work is meant to evoke. It is meant to make you stop, look and feel. Here I let you take a closer look at who I am. I hope it makes you speak when you cannot.
Gattiga 2023
Title translation from Telugu: to firmly hold or to strongly advice
I explore the 'feminine' and all her workings through gesture. I work with the experience of shared trauma and breaking down what it means to be a womxn of color, a womxn that is alien in this country and a womxn with mental disability.
The repetitive stroking and tying of hair represents the expectations and standards that womxn have had to live up to over centuries, while the shaking of the head is representative of breaking patterns. This piece is love and anger at the same time. It is also acceptance.
Through this piece I pay tribute to "the mother", "gattiga."
Walk All Over Me 2022
An immersive durational performance, done over 10 hours exploring voice and emotion. This piece invites viewers to walk into a space that magnifies the feeling of being suppressed.
Uyyala 2023
Title translation from Telugu: Swing
I look through the several intricacies of labour and care through the lens of a mother. I also acknowledge the systematic oppression that we must not ignore anymore. The makeshift swing, made from a saree- an image deeply rooted in my memory, reminds me of the labourers in India. Mothers provide ‘comfort’ to their children while working and living in mostly harsh and unsafe conditions. These swings are suspended from whatever is available, be it a tree or an unfinished structure.
I walk around with bare feet, with a black dot or as we call it the 'dishti chukka ' on the underside of my feet, this is symbolic of the tradition of warding off evil eye,
In this piece, I suspend a saree and lay in it. My eyes remain shut, like a baby asleep. The swing becomes a symbol of the womb, within, it is quiet and secure. In this cocoon, I rest, I hear, feel and see unlike before. Sometimes feeling like the child, sometimes feeling like the mother. Viewers are invited to interact with me as they please, allowing them to come close, witness and become part of the piece. The intention is not to be another documentation of the destitute but to hold our mothers back with gratitude.
