The impetus for the submission for 126 Artist-Run Gallery‘s open call BDGRL arises from text and imagery related to female gender and femininity used in vintage Indian and Pakistani media advertisements and circus promotion. Presentation of these elements in art form in contemporary art surroundings direct attention towards the change in portrayal of gender and sex in media and society through time. The submitted artwork comprise of six mixed media pieces and a poetic response to the subject.

I am a bad girl

Made of plastic

Artificial

The one of bright (sharp) colours

Like a puppet

Smooth from outside

Rough from inside

I will be the healing for your pain

I will obey you all the time

Layer upon layer

Smeared and spread

My body being beautified

Ready to worship you?

My body is my body

My flesh, my skin

My eyes

My tongue

My nipples and my breasts

You say they are for you?

And here I am sitting, thinking

What is mine?

Only this, that I am a bad girl

I am just the one layered in between the plastic

A pin-up for circus, an advertisement

But how many of my faces have you seen?

Have you seen Alakshmi?

When she sucks off your good fortune?

Or Nirrti, or Artemis, the multiple-breasted one?

The nurturing one

Who puts bread in your mouth

The one who makes you blind......