Come and See

incisive and Unapologetic, provocative, the female gaze has no qualms about upsetting the status quo in its quest for recovery and transformation. Five women artists visually riff on this vital way of looking and expressing to record tales of the past that are in danger of being forgotten, and stories of the anomalous future we could soon come to inhabit. 

- AVANTIKA SHANKAR

WHAT DOES IT mean to look with the female gaze? Must one first be conscious of one’s femaleness? As the female gaze becomes a critical lens for viewing contemporary Indian art, we witness depictions of the female form engaged in feats of power and play, but also steeped in moments of solitude, despair and transformation. In the current art terrain, the female gaze is a tool for change and, as a result of women having always been othered, imagines a future in which humanity is just one part of a transformed ecosystem. To be a woman, one might say, is to know one’s place, and these artists are finding theirs at the helm of a renewed, progressive art landscape.

MANJOT KAUR