KANCHANA GUPTA

Artist’s statement
Mahatma Gandhi said, "Men and women are equal in status but are not identical. They are a peerless pair being complementary to one another, each helps the other so that without the one, the existence of the other cannot be conceived, and therefore, follows as a necessary corollary form these facts that anything that will impair the states of either of them will involve the equal ruin of both".  Women in India have played an important part in social life and in history; however it is their unobtrusive work in the household, in the village or in the larger community that has moulded India. Today, India is going through rapid changes; however the majority of the Indian women live in their own time, in the background of their own history and in the shadow of social norms. 

 

My work aims to explore markers of gender identity, created social constructs and rituals for women in India. Marriage and motherhood represent the most definitive markers of gender identity for women. Marriage and motherhood are two key social and cultural mandates and these are considered primary gender roles for women across all social classes. These are also called hegemonic codes of gender identity. The Statuses of wife and mother not only define womanhood but also limit and regulate lives of women even today. These social mandates reinforce the premise of womanhood and gender identity in their daily lives. A woman is either someone’s wife or mother and beyond that she hardly has an individual identity. Realms of marriage and motherhood become focal point in lives of women.

 

My project specifically focuses on marriage as the key marker of the gender identity for women in India.  My work aims to explore various symbols and rituals of marriage and to trace social status of women in India through these symbols / rituals. These identifiers are primarily symbols of social norms imposed on them. The endeavour is to capture facets of Indian women as seen in the context of social norms. These norms have become so strong that they are considered synonymous to the identify of Indian women.