The Open Studio / Nandita Basak
Nandita Basak
“Your destination”
On the metro, every outfit is read before a word is spoken
A woman covers her face with yellow hands.
A black mask hides another face beside her.
Orange trousers, a blue jacket, a head painted out in shadow.
Gold earrings hang on a dark board like small suns.
A phone says you are here, then your destination.
Clear plastic holds it all, pinned at the corners,
so the wall shows through every life.
The work
Nandita Basak watches how people dress and how others judge them for it. In this work she paints women on a metro train in gouache. Beside them she places digital prints of her own photographs. Every sheet of paper is pasted onto clear acrylic. Thin white lines join the panels like a route on a phone map. Basak takes her references from daily life and social media. She is a student at the Sarojini Naidu School of Arts and Communication and is based in Delhi.
In the artist’s words
“I observe how people choose objects to represent themselves. An individual's clothing choices impact oneself and determine other people's behaviour towards them. My experience as a woman sharpens my focus on surveillance and social judgement. I take references from daily life, my interactions with people and social media. I depict these scenarios in sarcastic, taunting and cynical registers.”
- Theme
- Clothing, surveillance and judgement
- Material
- Gouache and digital prints of self photograph on paper pasted on acrylic sheet
- Size
- 121 × 121 × 3 cm
- Year
- 2026
- Edition
- 1 copy
- Framed
- Yes
- About the artist
- Sorojini naidu school of arts and communication
- From
- Delhi
- Code
- RC-4189
