Pushpamala N is an artist, whose work is based on photo and visuals who was born in 1956, Bangalore, India. She was trained as a sculptor at MS University, Baroda. But later, she shifted to photography through her interest in narrative figuration. She was energized by a painter called Bhupen Khakhar who was her friend as well. So she got diverted to this kind of photo performances.
Pushpamala N has been known as “The most entertaining artist implementor of contemporary Indian art” In her work, as a photo and video performance artist, sculptor, writer, administrator and agent and in partnership with writers, theatre directors and film makers, she searches to depress the highly dominant cultural and creative dialogue.
Her first solo exhibition was held at the Venkatappa Art Gallery, Bangalore in 1983. Her works has been exhibited world wide. She is specifically known for putting up all popular culture together in her work.
Pushpamala N received many awards. Her work has been explained as performance photography as she is generally the model in her own work. She applies ingredients of popular culture in her art to analyze Place, gender and history.
Her famous works are:
- Phantom Lady
- The Narrative Types- Flirting
- The Slave And Her Slave (after ingres)
- Sunhere Sapne (Golden dreams)
“Phantom Lady” is a photo romance shot in Mumbai. The artist created a series of suspenseful thriller photographs of herself as a gangster lady of night and a masked adventurer.
She continued with these photo romance series with ‘Sunhere Sapne’ (Golden dreams) where she tried to catch up the fantasy of a middle class housewife who is dressed in poor clothes.
In order to extend the performative appearance of the photo and video films, she made ‘Paris Autumn’, a work of imagination in the style of olden days thriller, narrating the story of the artist’s stay in Paris in 2005.Her last film,”Rashtriy Kheer and Desi Salad”, was made in 2007.
Pushpamala’s work has always been compared to American artist Cindy Sherman’s.
– Katyayani
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