The Open Studio / Nandita Basak
Nandita Basak
Overthinking
Are you not ready yet? A question every mirror seems to ask
Green tiles wait, cold and wet, for someone still in the shower.
A red towel holds her hair. Her arms hold the rest of her.
The brush moves over a face with closed eyes.
A gold phone shines like a small sun on a black wall.
Blue denim, pink scrunchies, a bottle the colour of skin.
Somewhere a voice asks again if she is ready.
The work
Nandita Basak studies how people choose objects to show who they are. In Overthinking, Basak paints in gouache on Nepali handmade paper. A woman sits wrapped in towels, hugging her knees. Another brushes powder onto her face with her eyes closed. Painted scenes of a green bathroom, a wrist and blue jeans sit beside printed pictures of a foundation bottle, a brush and a gold phone. Words on paper ask questions, which Basak calls "words of interrogation". Her college is Sarojini Naidu School of Arts and Communication in Delhi.
In the artist’s words
“I observe how people choose objects to represent themselves. My experience as a woman sharpens my focus on surveillance and social judgement, so my works carry words of interrogation. I use industrial media and advertisements for accessories to reflect the controlling role of social interactions, especially on women's bodies, in sarcastic, taunting and cynical registers.”
- Theme
- Women, objects and judgement
- Material
- Gouache on Nepali handmade paper with digital prints on paper and a paper box
- Size
- 91.44 × 121.92 × 8 cm
- Year
- 2026
- Edition
- 1 copy only
- Framed
- No
- About the artist
- Sorojini naidu school of arts and communication
- From
- Delhi
- Code
- RC-4188
