Pushpamala N

Born in Bangalore in 1956, Pushpamala N has been called ‘the most entertaining artist-iconoclast of contemporary Indian art’. In her sharp and witty work as a photo- and video-performance artist, sculptor, writer, curator and provocateur, and in her collaborations with writers, theatre directors and filmmakers, she seeks to subvert the dominant cultural and intellectual discourse. She is known for her strongly feminist work and for her rejection of authenticity and embracing of multiple realities. As one of the pioneers of conceptual art in India and a leading figure in the feminist experiments in subject, material and language, her inventive work in sculpture, conceptual photography, video and performance have had a deep influence on art practice in India. Starting off her career as a sculptor, Pushpamala began using photography and video in the mid -1990s, creating tableaux and photoromances in which she casts herself in various roles. Interested in history and the idea of cultural memory, she cites a wide range of references in her series of masquerades where she simultaneously inhabits and questions familiar frames from art history, photography, film, theatre and popular culture, thereby placing herself as the artist at the centre of social and political inquiry. Pushpamala N lives and works in Bangalore after having lived for periods in different Indian cities. She exhibits widely in India and internationally, and speaks often at seminars and conferences, writes about contemporary art and artists in the Indian socio-cultural context. Her latest piece that appears in the Indian Cultural Forum and in Scroll comments, as an artist in contemporary India, on the latest show Jana Shakti: A Collective Power which opened at the National Gallery of Modern Art, Delhi, on April 30, 2023.