This is an archive article published on March 17, 2017

Flesh and Ink

In her latest exhibition, Tarini Sethi addresses people’s discomfort with their body image.

3 min readMar 17, 2017 03:00 AM IST

Tarini Sethi

Tarini Sethi acknowledges that most people are conscious of their bodies and it is this perceived discomfort that she wants to address. To this end, the Delhi-based artist embarked upon a “word-image” project a year ago, wherein she invited people through social media to send her a photograph of themselves “in the least amount of clothes as possible”. She assured them that in exchange, she would draw them in a manner where their identity won’t be disclosed. “It was not meant to be a flattering portrait but a representation that is jarring, and possibly uncomfortable,” says Sethi. A graduate in art from Pratt Institute, New York, she has exhibited in the US and her last show was in Delhi in 2016.

Within weeks, the images started popping in her inbox. The entries ranged from women in their twenties to sixties, and a handful men as well. “I had expected more men to be sending images but that wasn’t how it was,” she says. With a set of 40 photographs to choose from, Sethi, 27, started working with her pen.
“Even I was a bit uncomfortable when I got the first few photographs. Initially, with the people I knew, I tried to separate myself from them but later I realised I could use my knowledge of them as groundwork. For instance, I added plants for someone who I knew liked plants,” says Sethi.

She has titled the exhibition of these works as “Of Flesh and Fog”. “It refers to our bodies and the mystery and drama that surrounds us,” says Sethi. The individual ink works are put together in the series “Enemy-Friend-Lover”. None of her protagonists wanted to conceal their identity. So she has a bespectacled Delhi girl, Anwesha Choudhuri, naked on her bed reading “about sex gods”, while Sethi’s roommate from New York, Hannah Rose, is seen tying her hair in a bun, with several potted greens around.

In another series “Tinder Gods of India”, the men dominate. Sethi takes photographs of men from Tinder, a popular dating app, and has them flexing muscles or posing as god, holding weapons, musical instruments and seated on animals. She also paints a “hallucinated paradise”, in the series “Utopia”, where “the divine and the damned dance with reckless abandon”. Patches of watercolour float over figures and floral sketches. “Insecurities, self-image issues and judgement do not exist here,” says Sethi.

Vandana Kalra

Vandana Kalra is an art critic and Deputy Associate Editor with The Indian Express. She has spent more than two decades chronicling arts, culture and everyday life, with modern and contemporary art at the heart of her practice. With a sustained engagement in the arts and a deep understanding of India’s cultural ecosystem, she is regarded as a distinctive and authoritative voice in contemporary art journalism in India. Vandana Kalra's career has unfolded in step with the shifting contours of India’s cultural landscape, from the rise of the Indian art market to the growing prominence of global biennales and fairs. Closely tracking its ebbs and surges, she reports from studios, galleries, museums and exhibition spaces and has covered major Indian and international art fairs, museum exhibitions and biennales, including the Venice Biennale, Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Documenta, Islamic Arts Biennale. She has also been invited to cover landmark moments in modern Indian art, including SH Raza’s exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the opening of the MF Husain Museum in Doha, reflecting her long engagement with the legacies of India’s modern masters. Alongside her writing, she applies a keen editorial sensibility, shaping and editing art and cultural coverage into informed, cohesive narratives. Through incisive features, interviews and critical reviews, she brings clarity to complex artistic conversations, foregrounding questions of process, patronage, craft, identity and cultural memory. The Global Art Circuit: She provides extensive coverage of major events like the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Serendipity Arts Festival, and high-profile international auctions. Artist Spotlights: She writes in-depth features on modern masters (like M.F. Husain) and contemporary performance artists (like Marina Abramović). Art and Labor: A recurring theme in her writing is how art reflects the lives of the marginalized, including migrants, farmers, and labourers. Recent Notable Articles (Late 2025) Her recent portfolio is dominated by the coverage of the 2025 art season in India: 1. Kochi-Muziris Biennale & Serendipity Arts Festival "At Serendipity Arts Festival, a 'Shark Tank' of sorts for art and crafts startups" (Dec 20, 2025): On how a new incubator is helping artisans pitch products to investors. "Artist Birender Yadav's work gives voice to the migrant self" (Dec 17, 2025): A profile of an artist whose decade-long practice focuses on brick kiln workers. "At Kochi-Muziris Biennale, a farmer’s son from Patiala uses his art to draw attention to Delhi’s polluted air" (Dec 16, 2025). "Kochi Biennale showstopper Marina Abramović, a pioneer in performance art" (Dec 7, 2025): An interview with the world-renowned artist on the power of reinvention. 2. M.F. Husain & Modernism "Inside the new MF Husain Museum in Qatar" (Nov 29, 2025): A three-part series on the opening of Lawh Wa Qalam in Doha, exploring how a 2008 sketch became the architectural core of the museum. "Doha opens Lawh Wa Qalam: Celebrating the modernist's global legacy" (Nov 29, 2025). 3. Art Market & Records "Frida Kahlo sets record for the most expensive work by a female artist" (Nov 21, 2025): On Kahlo's canvas The Dream (The Bed) selling for $54.7 million. "All you need to know about Klimt’s canvas that is now the most expensive modern artwork" (Nov 19, 2025). "What’s special about a $12.1 million gold toilet?" (Nov 19, 2025): A quirky look at a flushable 18-karat gold artwork. 4. Art Education & History "Art as play: How process-driven activities are changing the way children learn art in India" (Nov 23, 2025). "A glimpse of Goa's layered history at Serendipity Arts Festival" (Dec 9, 2025): Exploring historical landmarks as venues for contemporary art. Signature Beats Vandana is known for her investigative approach to the art economy, having recently written about "Who funds the Kochi-Muziris Biennale?" (Dec 11, 2025), detailing the role of "Platinum Benefactors." She also explores the spiritual and geometric aspects of art, as seen in her retrospective on artist Akkitham Narayanan and the history of the Cholamandal Artists' Village (Nov 22, 2025). ... Read More

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