The Open Studio / Nandita Basak
Nandita Basak
Wardrobe
A wardrobe laid out like evidence, joined by thin white lines
Gold silk and mustard cotton wait on black, empty of shoulders.
On the rail, orange, green and rose hang in a quiet line.
Five girls lean into one mirror. A flower, a mask and green glass take their faces.
Yellow slides to red in five flat squares.
White lines run from blouse to body to colour, like a form someone is filling.
Under plastic and screws, every choice is kept.
The work
Nandita Basak watches how clothes change the way people treat us. In Wardrobe she sets eight panels behind clear acrylic sheets held with screws. She paints some in gouache. Others are digital prints of her own photographs. Thin white liner joins them like a chart. Blouses, a clothes rack and a row of small clothing icons surround a group selfie with hidden faces. Basak works with "surveillance mechanisms and social judgement" in mind. She is from the Sarojini Naidu School of Arts and Communication in Delhi.
In the artist’s words
“I observe how people engage with items and how they choose objects to represent themselves. An individual's clothing choices affect oneself and determine other people's behaviour towards them. My personal experience of these matters as a woman sharpens my focus on surveillance mechanisms and social judgement. I depict these scenarios in sarcastic, taunting and cynical registers.”
- Theme
- Clothing and social judgement
- Material
- Gouache and digital prints of self photograph pasted in acrylic sheet and white liner
- Size
- 121 × 121 × 3 cm
- Year
- 2025
- Edition
- 1 copy only
- Framed
- Yes
- About the artist
- Sorojini naidu school of arts and communication
- From
- Delhi
- Code
- RC-4191
