Introduction
Arpita Singh is the first female artist in India to represent the homeworld in her paintings. Her early works reflect images of childhood memories, absorbing the world’s complexities around her. The bright details of everyday life in the childhood home bloom with colors in her drawings. In most of the artist’s works, human figures with certain features set against a background filled with words, letters, and numbers that may seem utterly meaningless to the viewer. When Arpita Singh was young and had to save on paper, she drew on everything at hand. She drew on handouts in printed catalogs to automatically integrate printed texts with her images.
Arpita Singh’s works reflect the grotesque forms of human figures with exposed ribs and vertebrae, some with intestines torn out of their original position. In the early works, the artist seemed like a little girl or a thoughtful woman, exploring an incomprehensible world, juxtaposing innocent childhood memories and familiar everyday details. In her latest works, she seems to have come to terms with this world and managed to establish control over it. She emerges from her home interiors and enters the great arena of life. Since the artist had to work in a patriarchal Indian environment, her work is a coded message about the power and sexuality of women, which could not be spoken openly.
The Need to Use Codes
The role of women in Hinduism is often the subject of debate – some see their position as prosperous and others as intolerable. The position of women in Hinduism is mainly based on various religious scriptures that have different authority, authenticity, and themes. Such scriptures characterize positive attitudes towards women as the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, which exalt the image of the ideal woman, while other texts, such as the Manu Smriti, place restrictions on women’s rights (Malik 5964). In Hinduism, it is believed that women must be married and remain chaste and pure at all costs.
According to ancient Hindu tradition, after marriage, the husband becomes the image of God for his wife. Many Hindu women follow the prescribed rituals in communicating with their husbands, touching their feet, washing them, and receiving blessings. The issue of dowry often remains open even after the wedding, when the groom or family members remain dissatisfied with the amount received. Accidents of domestic violence are frequently staged, which end in the death of wives. The daughter in the family appears to the parents as a financial burden.
Although the Parliament of India has equalized daughters in the right to inherit the land and other parental property, sons are still considered the family’s breadwinners. If a boy is to be born, the whole family rejoices and waits for his birth. If a woman is expecting a girl, family and relatives usually decide to do an abortion. Sexism in family planning is inherent in many Asian countries. Women either refuse to give birth to girls, knowing how hard their lives will be, or have an abortion under pressure from relatives. However, not all Indian women can afford an abortion: such operations are not cheap. In low-income families, unwanted girls are killed as soon as they are born.
Indian culture is traditionally patriarchal, so women’s voices in it do not have weight. Sexism pervades all cultural spheres of India, taboos on female sexuality are present in the cinema, and literature created predominantly by men perceives women as weak and submissive creatures (Mukhopadhyay and Debanjan 260). Arpita Singh has to encode the message in her works. In her drawings, toxic masculinity, women’s oppression, and war conflicts are represented through a set of symbols and codes. Women’s strength and wisdom are expressed in almost all works, and female characters can be seen and heard in her drawings.
The Works Analysis
Cancer: Receptive
Cancer: Receptive, 1999 is a watercolor painting of a middle-aged woman lying on a bed. She is naked; the lower part of the bed is a river, which symbolizes the stream of life that carries her away. The woman’s gaze is turned to the sky, which depicts the lunar cycle. A woman is somewhere between the world of the living and the dead. Her head rests on a pillow – a household symbol, but the rest of the environment seems to be an unrealistic part of the other world. The woman holds out her hand to the sky as if awaiting a verdict.
An airplane can be perceived as a detail that does not fit into the interior, but it symbolizes the vital movement and female energy in this context. The picture reflects humility before fate and the acceptance of life’s trials. Humility and tolerance are qualities traditionally valued by a patriarchal culture for a woman. The woman is weak, but she has an inner strength, which is symbolized by her tense hands. Her power is in accepting the inevitable and overcoming the inner fear of death.
Aquarius: Creative
Another painting from a series of zodiac signs depicts a concentrated woman in white robes who is busy painting. The woman is the central part of the picture, made in beige and blue tones. From above, the picture is framed with a floral pattern; from below, one can see two birds and an open blue flower. This picture reverses the very image of traditional Indian ideas about a woman’s role. The woman is busy not with housework but with the creativity that she likes, as evidenced by the smile on her face. At the same time, a woman does not lose her beauty and attractiveness; she can remain feminine but at the same time strong and self-sufficient.
Child Bride with Swan
The picture of a child bride painted in bright and grey colors reflects the social problem that exists in India. The artist managed to clearly show the horror and pain of a girl who, according to tradition, is forcibly married off. There are many elements in the picture: trees, airplanes, cars, and birds. However, the central part is the fate of a girl who enters family life in childhood. Female sad figures without hands symbolize the path of life, from a young bride to an adult woman. The lower-left corner represents a portrait of a married couple, perhaps a fleeting and false idea of true family happiness. The women in the picture do not have hands, which symbolizes their inability to influence the situation.
The central character of the painting – a fair-haired girl, is depicted naked; the artist shows her childish innocence. Cars and airplanes can be seen as a symbol of technological progress, despite which obsolete things like child marriage still happen in India. There are also many shadows in the picture, symbolizing the ancestors, convincing people to follow the old traditions. These shadows represent the tragic fate of women who married early.
This Could be Us, You, or Anybody Else
The picture is a blue space bounded by cardinal points at the edges, etching on paper. In the center of the picture are two older adults. The essential parts are an airplane, cars, and two groups of people opposing each other, one of whom is holding a gun. The picture presents a profound idea of reciprocity against the backdrop of ongoing conflicts. The woman and the man are given together, not in opposition to each other, for the first time in Arpita Singh’s works. The picture implies a possible unity only at the end of life when people realize their mistakes.
Repeated Symbols and Codes
Arpita Singh’s works are a unique, playful world full of vibrant colors and details, including framing, decorative elements, and the artist’s distinctive features. Arpita Singh’s early paintings were primarily watercolors on paper. By the 80s, she began to paint Bengali folk paintings with women in the spotlight (Dalmia 70). She used reservedly bright colors, and pinks and blues usually dominated her palette. Her paintings would have depicted women doing their daily work and following the simple routines of their lives. Arpita painted everyday objects such as trees, flowers, flower vases, animals, teapots, pillows, garlands, and flags and depicted women surrounded by them.
In the 90s, Arpita’s painting style shifted to oil on canvas, but she continued to paint women’s art. Many female emotions appeared in her paintings – joy, sadness, and hope. Arpita has demonstrated in her art such problems as hatred, and social injustice, which the modern woman faces. She also painted the troubles associated with girls in India. Women appear naked in some of her paintings, but her pictures do not have a sexual connotation and reflect female vulnerability.
Arpita’s paintings speak a lot about wars and unrest on a national and international level. She painted objects such as weapons, knives, cars and planes, soldiers, assassins, and corpses. Women will continue to be central to her art and will be shown at the host. Arpita Singh’s work has a figurative meaning, reflecting the loneliness and difficulty of being a woman in a patriarchal Indian culture (Dalmia 70). The details of the paintings, at first glance, are scattered and interpenetrate each other, creating an extraordinary magical world.
Static Figures
In Arpita Singh’s work, although people remain in the center of the picture, they are surrounded by a dynamic world. They exist in frames and environments: birds, cars, and planes depicted in motion. Trees in Indian culture are endowed with spiritual power, personifying the life cycle (Werner 24). In their contrast, people feel frozen in a particular state. This emphasizes human weakness before the elements and female loneliness in a hostile culture.
Birds
One of the recurring motifs in Arpita Singh’s paintings is birds, primarily ducks, in motion. Birds are part of the magical world that intersects with the natural world in the artist’s paintings. First of all, birds refer to the fairy-tale-folklore component; they are depicted next to women, denoting a woman’s belonging to the natural and mythological principles. Birds are an essential part of Indian culture and are traditionally associated with wisdom and divinity. In the paintings of Arpita Singh, a woman depicted next to a bird becomes closer to the divine principle. In addition, birds are a symbol of freedom in many world cultures. Women are personified with birds in an inner sense of freedom, despite the rigid framework of the patriarchal culture.
Mother Goddess
Arpita Singh refers to the feminine divine principle; all the heroines in her paintings have a close connection with the natural maternal side. This is signaled by the very symbolism of the depiction of female figures in the artist’s pictures. Some women are massive and solid, others are more fragile, but all of them have a connection with the divine maternal energy. Nude female figures symbolize innocence and holiness, as evidenced by the lack of a detailed image of the reproductive organs. If the women are not naked, they are dressed in light-colored clothes, symbolizing purity and a new beginning.
Airplanes
Airplanes – mechanical birds – almost universally used in the works of Arpita Singh, are the link between the natural and magical worlds. Airplanes are also a symbol of globalization and the military threat, the anxiety hanging over the human world. The traditional symbols of male military aggression in the artist’s paintings acquire new meanings. Airplanes can be considered a sign of hidden sexual energy. In addition, air means freely floating in the sky can be called internal freedom and the desire for external freedom.
Embroidery as a Female Artist Technic
Embroidery has traditionally been considered a women’s work, pastime, and creativity in many cultures worldwide. In the past, the embroidery was one of the few ways for women to take a break from housework and childcare. Just like the paintings of Arpita Singh, embroidery could carry hidden messages from women who wanted their voices to be heard. In the modern world, embroidery can be not only a hobby that increases attention and concentration but also a way of artistic embodiment of various ideas.
Many contemporary associations with embroidery, such as needle points or cheeky cross stitch cushions, seem whimsical, but this medium is used in varied and complex ways. In fact, needlework has a long relationship with politics, power, and resistance. Today, fiber art such as embroidery is increasingly present in museums and galleries. Artists use their needles to explore a dizzying array of issues, exploring gender, sexual and ethnic identity, cultural history, memory, and pop culture, among others topics.
Conclusion
It is difficult for a woman to grow herself and be heard in a patriarchal culture. Indian artist Arpita Singh uses coding and symbols in her work to make statements about female power and political events. The artist used different techniques during her career, ranging from black and white graphite works to vivid watercolor drawings. In the works of Arpita Singh, women are seen as vital, having a direct connection with the divine principle, but lonely figures in a hostile patriarchal environment. The use of repeating symbols: birds and planes complement the new reality created by the artist. Arpita Singh creates a magical world that interpenetrates the real; in this world, she can freely praise women and talk about political events.
Works Cited
Dalmia, Yashodhara. Arpita Singh: Of Mother Goddesses and Women. In Expressions & Evocations: Contemporary Women Artists of India, 70-94. India, Marg Publications, 1996.
Malik, Sonal. “Status of Women in Vedic Period.” Journal of Positive School Psychology, vol. 16, no.3, 2020, pp. 5693-5702. Web.
Mukhopadhyay, Sanchari, and Debanjan Banerjee. “Bollywood, Popular Visual Media, and Sexism in India: A Critical Glance Back.” Journal of Psychosexual Health, vol 3, no. 3, 2021, pp. 256-261. Web.
Yavas, Nesrin.”Needlework as a Political and Cultural Resistance in Contemporary American Novel.” Homeros, vol. 4, no. 2, 2021, pp. 51-59. Web.
Werner, Karel. Symbols in art and religion: the Indian and the comparative perspectives. Routledge, 2019.