Female Fantasy

IF you expect comfort, warmth and mirthful conversation in artist Mithu Sen’s Drawing Room, you’d be knocking on the wrong door. T...

IF you expect comfort, warmth and mirthful conversation in artist Mithu Sen’s Drawing Room, you’d be knocking on the wrong door. There’s a plush settee alright, only it’s draped in tiger skin (a metaphor for one’s loss of identity), and has a fleshy hot-pink tongue beckoning you to sink in.

This 34-year-old Bengali artist has a genius for eyebrow-raising creations focussed on female sexuality. Her interactive art project No star, No land, No word, No commitment (New York, 2004) where she shaped her thoughts on the loss of youth through artificial hair, got her both critical acclaim and an audience.

So does feminism form the pith and marrow of her work? ‘‘That’s simply not true,’’ Sen insists, as she walks me past a risqué, pink, phallic scale drawing at The British Council in New Delhi, where she’s exhibiting her works. ‘‘My shows aren’t only about female sexuality. They’re about self-love and self-respect. Homosexuality, masturbation whatever—it’s about living passionately.’’

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Drawing Room—a mixture of installations and mixed media drawings—was born out of a need to shatter taboos, to create a space where sexual fantasies can be caressed unabashedly. ‘‘The conventional drawing room is where guests are entertained. Where you can crack loud, lewd jokes or indulge in light-hearted cocktail party banter over finger food,’’ says Sen. ‘‘I wanted to break away from all that pretension and hypocrisy by transforming it into a space where private, intimate feelings are exposed.’’ All of Sen’s objects are sexualised, each lined with a sense of menace and pain. The jewellery box—a soft, feminine symbol—opens to reveal a dark fuzz of pubic hair.

Interestingly, Sen’s work isn’t confined to her canvases alone. It spills outside—bottle green vines creep along the walls and, here and there, you’ll spot a rose bush peeping out at you. ‘‘In my drawing room, I hate to leave any space unattended,’’ she says. ‘‘But it’s also because most art buyers choose to buy what they label the ‘pure medium’. I like playing games with my buyers.’’

It’s a gimmick that’s paid off well—one that most of the guests at the Delhi preview lapped up. Overheard was a Swiss national beseeching Sen to paint a wall in her drawing room. ‘‘I’ve always been one to experiment with weird materials and ideas,’’ laughs Sen.

(Drawing Room at The British Council, New Delhi, till January 25; at Gallery Chemould, Mumbai, from January 14 to January 31)