female figure with large golden crown wearing red and white standing on top of a painted red lotus; arms out; painted backdrop with elephant in river, swans, and waterfall

%C2%A9 Pushpamala N

Lakshmi, 2000-2004 (printed 2016)

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The Margaret McMillan Webber Fundexpand_more  2016.79.4

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Pushpamala N. is a photo-performance artist based in Bangalore, India. From 2000 to 2004, she worked with British photojournalist Clare Arni to create Native Women of South India: Manners and Customs. The series focuses on idealized representations of women in Indian art of the historical periods, British colonial images of Indian women, and the more recent production of feminine stereotypes in contemporary visual culture. Drawing from a range of sources including historical paintings, colonial photography, regional cinema, and contemporary magazines, Pushpamala restages these images and reenacts the different roles that have been attributed to women. In reenacting these roles, the idea of “Indian women” as an ethnographic group is exposed as a stereotype no less fictive than the artist’s elaborate performance captured by British photojournalist Clare Arni’s camera.

Details
Title
Lakshmi
Artist Life
born 1956
Role
Photographer
Accession Number
2016.79.4
Curator Approved

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female figure with large golden crown wearing red and white standing on top of a painted red lotus; arms out; painted backdrop with elephant in river, swans, and waterfall

© Pushpamala N

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