‘Parallel Lives’ : A Project by Dipali Bhattacharya
In Dipali Bhattacharya’s works, the personal and the political intersect and blend seamlessly. There is the immediately accessible visual vocabulary of the personal: history is paraphrased through objects drawn from personal life, interpersonal relationships are expressed through photographs from family albums, beauty and vulnerability expressed through a flock of birds in flight.
These are parallel tales of feminine strength: of survival even in the most difficult and trying of circumstances. Liberation and equality lie at the heart of this body of work. These ‘Parallel Lives’ are about the personal and political, conformity and revolt, the outwardly decorative and inwardly subversive. All, however, are pregnant with significance and meaning.
In these visually striking works, Bhattacharya speaks at multiple and diverse levels to her audience. An understanding of her social activism and concerns, nonetheless, is crucial to understanding their true import. Certain themes- the role of the woman in the family, domestic spaces, the fight for social justice and equality– recur, as do wider themes of colonialism, feminism and gender politics.
Bhattacharya keeps history and politics at the centre of her work where the historical old buildings, objects and photographs to name a few– and the political– the struggles of the women of Sholo Bighe, a distressed area outside Calcutta- become accessible through the transformative medium of human relationships. Words such as ‘Hope’, ‘Flight’ and ‘Desire’ scattered across the scrolls on display express complex political and ideological ideas.
This exhibition comprises paintings, sculptural works and scrolls along with videos which documentBhattacharya’s creative process.