She encourages the viewer to see what was always there – what was once in the ‘margins of a mythic history’ 2 is brought to the foreground. In Ganesh’s work, women and queer characters become the protagonists, actively shaping their futures. She draws out alternative depictions of sexuality and power from popular stories and histories, highlighting the accounts of female protagonists, which have often been subsumed or marginalized by plot lines that reproduce the contours of majoritarian power.
In nonlinear narratives and richly layered visual worlds, Ganesh subverts traditional storytelling to create women and queer centric narratives of the future. Ganesh’s explorations of mythologies and narrative traditions bring important historical conversations to the contemporary moment.
In detailed works, Ganesh combines a vast array of influences including South Asian iconography, science fiction and queer theory, with the visual languages of vintage comics, Bollywood posters, and video games. Combined with her upbringing in New York City’s far reaching urban and cultural landscape, these influences taken together yield a distinct perspective. Ganesh’s oeuvre is informed by her studies in literature and semiotic theory, and regular travels to India, with particular interest in Indian film and music. Her work challenges and disrupts conventions of gender, sexuality and power, particularly by centering or reorienting complex narratives – often of mythological or epic proportion – around iconic female protagonists and forms.” 1 Through a multidisciplinary approach, Ganesh has “catalysed a long- standing investigation of narrative and imagery anchored in historical South Asia and extending to contemporary global concerns. She lives and works in Brooklyn, NY, USA.Īcross a twenty-year practice, Chitra Ganesh has developed an expansive body of work rooted in drawing and painting, which has evolved to encompass animations, wall drawings, collages, computer generated imagery, video, and sculpture. She attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2001 and received her MFA in Visual Arts from Columbia University, NY in 2002. 1975 Brooklyn, New York, USA) received a BA in Art-Semiotics and Comparative Literature from Brown University, Providence, RI in 1996.
AMAR CHITRA KATHA GANESH SERIES
A series of hand-embroidered flags at the top reference Ganesh’s neighborhood and other religions adorn the mural.Chitra Ganesh (b. Two futuristic-looking women-one fitted with computerized arms, the other ornamented by machine cogs-flank her on either side. A skirt made of severed arms cast from the limbs of a host of Ganesh’s friends hangs eerily from her waist, with lengths of artificial hair extending all over the wall.
Six arms, one equipped with a sickle, and another with a large extra eye fixed to the palm, stretch outwards. She is faceless, with a clock for a head. A semi-nude Kali, revered for her power of destruction to keep world order and her protection for those who seek knowledge, looms large. Installed in the Herstory Gallery of the Sackler Center, Ganesh’s primary inspiration comes from Judy Chicago’s use of Kali the Indian goddess in her permanent installation “Dinner Party” at the Sackler Center, as well as influences from other artifacts by Louise Bourgeois, Kiki Smith and Soichi Ida in the museum’s collection.
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