I come from a lower middle-class family in Jharkhand, where my world started from my family. Since childhood I have been noticing the Do’s and Don’ts that surround a woman’s life.  The more I became aware of my identity as a person beyond the constraints placed on me as a woman, the more I became curious about the stories of the women around me.  I have travelled around my state, and spoken to women from the various tribes that live here, collecting their stories in textual form. In my work, I attempt to highlight these stories, and explore them in a mixed media format.

In this body of work, I use the domestic space as an interface between the inside and outside worlds. I connect the female experience with material objects that are common to such domestic spaces. I create textual reconstructions of objects such as a bed, curtains, and an almirah, using tissue paper bandage around G.I. wire. The laborious task of wrapping tissue paper around wire harks back to the repetitive nature of domestic chores that women are expected to carry out, morning to night. The tightly wrapped tissue paper, which has been twisted over and over again, also brings out the suffocation that comes from the repetition of conducting these chores on a daily basis. Similarly, I create repetitive patterns using my hair, where the quality of the material determines the final outcome of the artwork. 

I use language from known texts such as the Manusmriti, Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex, news headlines, and tribal stories of women’s suffering, to show how different texts both perpetuate as well as challenge women’s subjugation. The concept of each piece dictates the material and techniques I use in it. Techniques such as weaving, embroidery, twisting, and stretching evoke images of the physical and mental exhaustion of carrying out this repetitive labour. Material and concept are deeply intertwined in my work. While I initially choose the material based on the concept, the concept often evolves in the course of exploring that material. In this way, my work is also about the limits of the material in which every artistic work is ultimately anchored.