Pushpamala N and Clare Arni

Pushpamala N. is known for incorporating popular culture into her photographic work. The artist has adopted various trendy personas, historic figures and ironic roles as vehicles for her examination of issues of gender, location and history. The comic aspect of her work carries a particularly sharp edge in her photo-based installations and projections, exposing cultural and gender stereotyping while exploring the complex terrain of...
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Pushpamala N. is known for incorporating popular culture into her photographic work. The artist has adopted various trendy personas, historic figures and ironic roles as vehicles for her examination of issues of gender, location and history. The comic aspect of her work carries a particularly sharp edge in her photo-based installations and projections, exposing cultural and gender stereotyping while exploring the complex terrain of contemporary urban life in India.

The artist has collaborated with Scottish photographer Clare Arni, who spends most of her time in South India, to create a series of photographs which document blatant differences with a subtle ethical under current. The duo use their inherent ‘colour’ to their advantage to portray racial discrimination and those between real and hypocritical.

“This is performance photography, not documentary photography,” stresses Pushpamala. “I've always been socially aware. By using generic or familiar images, I comment on the world and society by putting myself into the fray, so that I become part of the story. I transform the stereotypical with my persona” (as quoted in Aditi De, “Sister Act”, The Hindu, 4 March 2004, accessed November 2008).

Clare Arni was born in 1962 in Scotland, but has spent most of her life living in Bangalore or traveling and photographing life and events in countries including Peru, Afghanistan, and Myanmar. She also works as an architectural and travel photographer, and her architectural work includes contributions to books that chronicle the work of Charles Correa and Geoffrey Bawa amongst other reputed architects. Her work has been published in several magazines and she has been the solo photographer for books on Hampi, Benares and the Kaveri River for Marg Publications. Last year Arni completed a detailed black-and-white photo documentary on the works of a German aid agency in some of the most remote regions of India. At the moment her projects include a documentation of the vernacular architecture of South India as well as a book on the beauty traditions of Asia.

To view Pushpamala’s profile, please click here

Honours and Awards

Pushpamala N.

2006 The Rockefeller Foundation artist...

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Lot 57 Details

EDITIONS 24-Hour Auction 18-19 May 2011

Returning from...

Digital C print on metallic paper

21.5 x 13 in

Winning bid
$1,990
Rs 86,543
(Inclusive of buyer's premium)

Lot 56 Details

Winter Auction 2008 10-11 December 2008