The Open Studio / Nandita Basak
Nandita Basak
Feeling relax?
A shopping menu that sorts bodies like stock on a shelf
A yellow mat, a phone held low, a face left empty.
Beside her, someone sleeps in blue shorts with a head on a blue pillow.
The menu on the left keeps asking where we belong: Men, Women, Accessories.
A blue checked cloth hangs over two sandals with no feet inside.
Two pink covers wait in a paper box.
A sheet mask looks out through three dark holes.
Rest here is a room where everyone can see.
The work
Nandita Basak paints in gouache on Nepali handmade paper. In Feeling relax? she places these paintings beside digital prints and a small paper box. Words from a shopping website run down the left side: Men, Women, Top wear, Accessories. At the centre a woman sits on a yellow mat with her phone. Her face has no features. A figure in blue shorts lies beside her. Basak takes her pictures from daily life and from social media. The work is 60.96 × 91.44 × 8 cm.
In the artist’s words
“I observe how people engage with items and choose objects to represent themselves. A person's clothing choices affect them and shape how others behave towards them. As a woman I notice surveillance and social judgement. I use industrial media and advertisements from daily accessories to reflect the controlling role of social interactions, especially with regard to women's bodies.”
- Theme
- Clothing and social judgement
- Material
- Gouache on Nepali handmade paper, digital printout on paper and paper box
- Size
- 60.96 × 91.44 × 8 cm
- Year
- 2026
- Edition
- 1 copy
- Framed
- No
- About the artist
- Sorojini naidu school of arts and communication
- From
- Delhi
- Code
- RC-4190
