材质:collage and digital print on paper；digital print on archival photograph 拍品描述:来源 Gifted by the artist to the present owner， circa late 1990s “Rummana’s photographic creations that at first seem to live somewhere between romantic shots of elegantly crumbling Moghul edifices， that are still integral parts of living cities， and her feminist-socio concerns featuring lower middle-class Indian women eking out their quotidian existence， nudge us to reconsider the woman-monument， internal-external， home-nation nexus” (K. Kapoor， Rummana Hussain: Home/Nation， exhibition catalogue， Mumbai， 1996， p. 3). Born in 1952， Rummana Hussain was a pioneer of contemporary， multimedia and performance art in India. Although her life was cut short by cancer in 1999， her impact on the Indian artworld was profound. By the 1990s， she had become fluent in the language of social practice and art， honing a style that transcended any single medium. Hussain’s body of work comprises painting， performance， photography， sculpture， language， found objects， and room-sized installations. She often placed her body at the center of her practice， using it as a vessel for the feminine as well as a representative of individual experience. Raised in a liberal family with origins in Lucknow， Hussain was no stranger to political protest or social welfare initiatives. In 1980， while working at Garhi Studios in Delhi， she met prominent artists including Manjit Bawa and Mrinalini Mukherjee， who helped her on her path to developing an individual style of figurative painting that highlighted her social concerns. Although a talented painter， Hussain soon felt limited by this medium and started looking into other ways of investigating and conveying the issues that were important to her， including instances of violence， corruption， and exploitation. In the late 1980s and early 1990s in India， a new wave of political violence and socio-religious unrest， as well as increased censorship and intolerance particularly disturbed Hussain， pushing her to interrogate her identity as a Muslim woman in India， and the ways in which this shaped her artistic practice. Finding she could no longer express herself only through two-dimensional work， Hussain began to explore installation and performance based works of art. This present lot， executed in the late 1990s just before Hussain’s death， comprises two experimental photographic prints. The first reuses a photograph of a derelict mosque along the Saryu River in Ayodhya from the artist’s archive， versions of which were seen in her seminal 1996 installation Home/Nation. A changing pattern of necklines from various women’s clothing items， possibly borrowed from her local laundry-man， is overlaid in a grid on this black and white image. The repeating necklines seem to form a kind of script， a secret feminine alphabet， that conveys the trauma of the time， both personal and national， as Hussain experienced it. This alphabet is also reminiscent of the forms of archways from various Indian architectural traditions， once again connecting the feminine with the monumental in Hussain’s work. In the second image， a variation of the same grid is imposed on a stark black background. In a single cell in its fourth row， Hussain collages a photo of herself over the base image， her own neckline highlighted， almost as if she is giving her viewers a clue to decipher and understand this coded language. The symbolism of the neckline is particularly poignant on a personal level as well， given Hussain deployed it just after receiving the shattering diagnosis of breast cancer. As the artist used her body to convey meaning in her performances， in this two-dimensional work too， Hussain places herself within the work， visually and symbolically. Hussain has used alphabets and grids as tools in her work before. In Home/Nation， she displayed rows of images depicting hands cutting vegetables， rolling chapatis and scrubbing vessels. This installation referred once again to the overlaps of femininity and community， and domestic and public spaces， and to the kindred repetitiveness of Sufi chants and kitchen chores. In her 1997 installation， The Tomb of Begum Hazrat Mahal， currently reprised and on view at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Art in New York， Hussain used rusted metal implements to create a similar new alphabet， displayed on the wall in running calligraphic script. The works in this lot， however， are particularly unique in that they have never been exhibited. Likely created as experimental steps towards a future project， this pair offers an intimate window into Hussain’s artistic practice. “Digging past the archaic symbolisms that at the time surrounded the female body – woman as a pure virgin， as the body of a new Indian nation state， as mother-guider – Rummana presented a view of the individual woman， in all her complexities [...] Hussain’s growing comfort with plurality allowed her to further embark on multi-layered explorations of the marginalized while employing a diversity of mediums including her own body. These seminal works of Hussain – bold， poignant， and provoking， are as relevant and essential today as they were when created almost a quarter-century ago” (D. Talwar， ‘Rummana Hussain’， Talwar Gallery website， accessed February 2023).