In the spirit of sisterhood

Sister Roswin, 35, was born Malu Joy, the daughter of a painter, one half of a pair of twin girls, enamoured by the way paint stayed on a wall after a brush stroke.

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As a girl, she attended a school run by the Congregation of the Mother of Carmel, where she found herself curious about the nuns who taught her. What did it mean to love God more than anything else? Who were these women who dedicated their lives to this pursuit?

She joined the same congregation in 2013, having completed a Bachelor's degree in Sociology and a certification in counselling.

At the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Joy's works take up an entire room at SMS Hall: 30 drawings, eight small terracotta busts, and two large sculptural installations, all featuring older nuns as subjects.

The works are remarkable not only because they offer a view of women who have spent their lives in service and under strict religious orders, but because they render the religious archetype all too human. Joy does not idealise her subjects, but shows their imperfections and fragilities.