In her famous essay, A Room of One’s Own, that addressed the status of women, and women artists in particular, Virgina Woolf asserted that a woman must have money and a room of her own, if she aims to write.
In Sector 38, here in Chandigarh on Wednesday, an entire gallery was dedicated to the celebration of art and womanhood.
The opening ceremony of the month-long exhibition ‘38 Women Artists in Sector 38’ was held on Wednesday at Rani Laxmi Bai Mahila Bhawan in Sector 38C. Being organised by the Chandigarh Lalit Kala Akademi (CLKA), the event was inaugurated by UT adviser Manoj Kumar Parida.
Former Chandigarh mayor Bibi Harjinder Kaur, who was also present here, said, “It took 10 years for the Mahila Bhawan to materialise in 2007. But it is today that the building that had been lying dormant for 12 years has came alive.”
Poet and writer Nirupama Dutt said when she started her work as a critic four decades ago, there was not a single woman artist in the city: “It took longer for the feminine spirit to manifest but now that it is here, it proves that the city is finally growing up.”
Ashima Raizada, 25, was trained as an engineer but found that art was her true calling only last year. Her work displayed at the gallery is called ‘Story map of an unknown location’. She calls it a work of abstract expressionism that explores the concept of space and fantasy.
{{/usCountry}}Ashima Raizada, 25, was trained as an engineer but found that art was her true calling only last year. Her work displayed at the gallery is called ‘Story map of an unknown location’. She calls it a work of abstract expressionism that explores the concept of space and fantasy.
{{/usCountry}}“For women, art is not an easy industry to be in. There is no set system to go from point A to B. You find your own way through a lot of analysis and struggle but with events like these, it feels good to be recognised,” she says.
On working as an artist in Chandigarh, she says, “The modernity and contemporariness of the city’s architecture helped me shape my work. The pace of the city is just right for introspection.”
After her retirement in December from her job as a lecturer of fine arts with the education department, 61-year-old Jaskanwaljit Kaur feels she is finally free to do what she couldn’t earlier—pursue art full time. When she was studying at Government College of Art, she was the only woman in her class. “I have seen Chandigarh as a raw place but now things have changed tremendously, for good.”
Although a multi-disciplinarian, she says printmaking is her passion. Her work on display is called ‘We...Time Clock’, an upside down human figure depicting an hourglass. “Being a woman with multiple roles feels like working as a time clock,” she says.
Manjot Kaur, 30, is another alumna of the art college. She works on projects involving painting, installation, animation videos and public projects in the domain of performance. Her work on display ‘Metastasis’ marries science and art to talk about pollution crisis in Punjab.
“I observed how my environment was affecting my body and taking the flight of imagination to delve into the subconscious, I produced this work,” she says.
City-based music group ‘Soul’s Diet’ performed at the event. The exhibition is open to the public till October 19 (closed on Sundays).