The Open Studio / Nandita Basak
Nandita Basak
Title- “Chronicles of Absence
A face kept hidden while the screen keeps asking who she is
Gold hangs from an ear on a field of black.
Lips, a nose, two closed eyes, each in its own small moon.
She lifts a phone where her eyes should be.
Again she hides behind a cloth the colour of sand.
Rows of numbered doors, a few left open.
A blue hoodie keeps the shape of someone gone.
The screen asks if she is the same person. Not sure.
The work
Nandita Basak builds Chronicles of Absence from many small parts on a black ground. Six round gouache paintings on Nepali handmade paper show a nose, a hand, lips, an ear, a head and closed eyes. Most wear gold jewellery. Around them sit digital prints of her own photographs. In most of them her face is hidden. Lockers, a blue hoodie and a screen asking "Same or different person?" complete the work. Basak is from the Sarojini Naidu School of Arts and Communication.
In the artist’s words
“I observe how people engage with items and how they choose objects to represent themselves. As a woman, I recognise surveillance and social judgement, so my works have words of interrogation. I use industrial media and advertisements to reflect the controlling role of social interactions on women's bodies. My current works remove gender as a category from human representation.”
- Theme
- Surveillance and shifting identity
- Material
- Gouache on Nepali handmade paper and digital prints of self photographs
- Size
- 121 × 121 × 3 cm
- Year
- 2026
- Edition
- 1 copy
- Framed
- No
- About the artist
- Sorojini naidu school of arts and communication
- From
- Delhi
- Code
- RC-4193
