Smriti Dixit’s wild flowers: red as freedom

When I met Smriti Dixit last year, she told me with a scheming smile, “I’m working on a show and it’s going to be very different.” What surprised me was, how different I am, as Dixit, 50, always works with difficult and unexpected mediums that bring diverse meaning to her installations. I still remember his blood red hibiscus river At the 2018 Goa Serendipity Arts Festival in a section curated by Ranjit Hoskote. One’s senses were overcome by primitive, enlarged blood balls descending from the ceiling, referring to the female menstrual cycle.

Her latest single titled Art Musings wild flower, presents woven sculptures from fabric and plastic price tags – materials found everyday, made, recycled and encoded with their interpretation. “I titled the exhibition” wild flower’ to honor the indomitable spirit of the work of memory,” says curator Nancy Adajania. “She told me with twinkling eyes, ‘Nancy, if a certain. wildness [wildness] Doesn’t show in my work, I feel uncomfortable!’ And the wildness here is the autocratic and aggressive energy of women who disregard domesticated animals—who, figuratively, run with wolves. That’s what this exhibition pulsates from.”

breaking taboos

A 2019 news article about women having their uterus removed without their knowledge or consent so they didn’t have to take maternity leave (in Beed, Maharashtra) inspired Dixit to start the project. The 2018 Sabarimala case, where women of menstrual age protested a ban on temple entry and a court overturned it, was another starting point. “It is the patriarchal system that seeks to control women and shame them for their strongest factor,” says Dixit.

In the gallery, her work is spread across the floor, hanging from the ceiling, and mounted on the walls. Garden of Guilt and Pleasure There are a bunch of wall hangings densely woven from plastic tags – dividing their commercial function, the tags become mulch, vines and dirt-covered root vegetables. one more piece, AnnouncementThere is a cloth idol of the uterus, made from vermilion red cotton and nylon.

‘Garden of Crime and Pleasure’ | photo credit: special arrangement

“What fascinates me to the work of memory is its uncontrollable, shape-changing character,” says Adajania. “I wanted the exhibition’s visibility to reflect the spirit of continuous growth and diffusion, which is a distinctive feature of his sculptural installations.”

knit, knit, repeat

Hand work plays an important role wild flower. Dixit, who used both weaving and weaving techniques in the project, worked with women from her neighborhood in Kandivali. “It captures the rhythm and unique energy of their bodies, and it breaks up the monotony of machine-made products,” says the artist.

‘longing’ | photo credit: special arrangement

This was another aspect that Adajania wanted to highlight. “I wanted the audience to experience the interminable flow of time with which memory works. She works together, repetitively and passionately, for months to do the same thing. It’s his way of admitting to underestimating domestic labor, and it’s also a form of chant [chant] To invoke the productive energies of the universe. The exhibition is therefore conceived as a set of environments in which spectators can immerse themselves, environments in which to lurk, explore and live,” she concludes.

wild flower Art Sangeet is in Mumbai till March 10.