Bold and Beautiful

Megha Joshi makes mammary glands the focus of her first solo — thus making a point about sexual repression and censorship

(From far left) Megha Joshi’s works titled Through A Lens; the artist

As artist Megha Joshi introduces “Sensor/Censor”, a series of black-and-white photographs of her arms, knees and face, marked with silicon replicas of the areola, she forces viewers to confront their sense of shock and shame with her first solo exhibition “I: Object”, being held in Delhi. In the work, she has duplicated the expensive medical prosthetics used by breast cancer patients and displaced them on other body parts, thus projecting her anger towards the trivial reaction towards the female body in magazines, films, television and social discourse today.

Interestingly, the 41-year-old Gurgaon-based artist was working on a completely different theme for her first solo two years ago. It brought her in contact with protagonists such as cobblers and duplicate key makers — and the foray to a less-visited road of society curved towards her new subject.

“When I was working with them, I realised it became a male-female thing. I am a sculptor and have to think about my gender while working. While working with welders at soaring temperatures, I have to keep in mind what I wear. Why can’t I do my work without thinking I am going to be attacked?” asks Joshi, as she talks about the threats working women face everyday — from deciding what to wear on the streets to their dilemma of deciding whether to travel by public transport late at night.

The artist, who studied sculpture at Faculty of Fine Arts at MSU in Baroda, began working as a set designer and art director for film and television, before deciding to return to art practice in 2008. She appeared at the India Art Summit and the India Art Fair (2012 and 2013), and group shows such as “R.A.P.E” at Art Bull and “The Embedded Landscape” at Religare Arts gallery.

“I: Object” is not the first time Joshi has raised eyebrows. As she explores different medium, right from metal and fabric to ceramic and fiberglass, a pair of rubber blow horns resembling mammary glands that greeted viewers at “R.A.P.E”, makes a reappearance here. Similarly, the addition of a pair of speed balls, with boxing gloves placed below them, look ready for a punch.

She says, “I want this imposed privacy to be done away with and create a public platform where dialogue and discussion can take place.”

An iconic Marilyn Monroe photograph finds a new twist in the form of a sculpture of her white dress billowing in the wind, albeit without her body, placed on a bed of areolas. On a similar bed in another sculpture titled She Shroud, lies a woman’s body draped with fiberglass sheet, questioning the mystery after death. The artist only puts forth questions, choosing not to answer any: “Does gender end with death? Does the soul have a gender?” Perhaps the rituals observed after death, mostly patriarchal and different for a man and a woman, only prove that this bias will continue to haunt forever.

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