ARTIST STATEMENT
Voice, simultaneously a noun and a verb, addresses women defying gender discrimination and gender-based apartheid. Globally—even today—many cultural and religious practices continue to regard women as the weaker and softer of the two traditionally recognized genders. From a young age, girls are socialized to be homemakers and caregivers, while boys are taught to be providers and protectors.
This body of work resists these stereotypes and the global surge of neoconservative, patriarchal ideologies that presume male superiority and justify control over women’s freedom of choice.
The metal hanger, serves, on one hand, as a trope of inequality—a stark reminder of the dark era of illegal abortions—and on the other, through its bending, twisting, and breaking, becomes a powerful symbol of women’s protest for bodily autonomy and freedom.
These laser engravings on wooden spoons are part of growing installations that will incorporate new/found/ acquired-vintage readymades and other elements to give voice to gender stereotypes and challenge them.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
A multidisciplinary feminist artist, Indrani Nayar-Gall weaves global narratives of marginalization, patriarchy, and misogyny through artivist practice at the intersection of installation, 2-D/3-D media, moving image and community engagement. Social justice themes stem from her experience growing up in India as a child of mixed north-south Indian backgrounds, and her life in the Caribbean and the U.S. with her inter-racial family. Nayar-Gall’s non-conformist work is inspired by being surrounded by women-made culture/ritual and mark-making, evoking women’s bodies as sites of violence, dreams and aspirations. Using or combining paper, fiber, ready-mades. She stretches the limits of conventional processes to create bodies that hang, stretch over floors or walls, or create non-linear digital moving image narratives. Guiding herself intuitively, she imagines solutions or reinterprets concepts, appropriates material to alter or disassociate the real/obvious to create visceral, tactile or surreal experiences. Indrani has an MFA in experimental printmaking from Visva Bharati University India and a Graduate Certificate in Contemporary Non-Toxic Printmaking from Rochester Institute of Technology. She has received numerous awards and exhibits regionally, nationally and internationally. Her works are in important public and private art collections including The National Art Collection of Barbados.
© Indrani Nayar-Gall