Important Notice

Although her oeuvre spans several different genres including printmaking, installation and photography, Chitra Ganesh explains that all of her work is animated by the same fundamental themes and questions. "There is a thread that runs through my work that is based on the content or the kind of questions I'm asking. I am interested in recovering and fleshing out erased moments in history or mythology and imagining them more fully. Using different... Although her oeuvre spans several different genres including printmaking, installation and photography, Chitra Ganesh explains that all of her work is animated by the same fundamental themes and questions. "There is a thread that runs through my work that is based on the content or the kind of questions I'm asking. I am interested in recovering and fleshing out erased moments in history or mythology and imagining them more fully. Using different media allows one to approach the same problem from different angles and allows the audience to bring their own related viewing experience to that particular medium" (as quoted in Natasha Bissounath, "Storytelling", Art & Deal, Vol. 5, No. 4, Issue 26, 2008, p. 96).

The 'erased moments' that Ganesh excavates often concern imbalanced power dynamics, exposing the ways in which broad cultural and historical narratives tacitly overlook, or perhaps intentionally ignore the subaltern. In her work, then, Ganesh presents those that have been denied both voice and mobility as gendered, sexualized and politicized beings.

The present lot, an epic mixed-media mural painted across six large panels, speaks of the historical and cultural construction of the feminine body as a vehicle of action and reproduction, as well as a site where hierarchies, violence and erasure are enacted. Amongst the coterie of motifs and forms that signify these acts is an ornamented flying scalpel, multiple scars and teardrops, a wounded female body holding its own severed head, and another female body with dark, bulging eyes and multiple breasts.

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