Mayuri Chari's work at India Art Fair featuring vaginas sculpted in cow dung is a statement against the hypocritical attitude towards women.
Mayuri’s practice pays homage to not just to her own experience of womanhood but also that of the women around her. (Instagram/mayuri_chari)
On one corner of the India Art Fair, you can find something that is commonplace in rural India – cow dung cakes plastered to a wall to dry. As you look closer, you will see that the cow dung cakes are in the shape of female genitalia. It’s the work by Konkani artist Mayuri Chari.
The rows of vaginas sculpted in cow dung are a statement against the hypocritical attitude towards menstruation. Through her art, she questions the tradition of banishing women from their homes during their period for being “impure” though many consider cow dung pure and use them in religious and domestic spaces.
“People banish women to a corner of the house for four days during their period. They can’t touch anything or anyone. On the other hand, they use cow dung for purification of their home. They worship cows while rejecting a human for being impure.”
“I am questioning that idea,” added the Goa-born textile artist. She is exhibiting at the India Art Fair as part of its Artists in Residence programme.
Chari’s work plays around gender and body stereotypes.
Chari’s corner also features large quilt covers as well as small clothes with bodies of women in their natural shapes stitched in with colourful threads.
“I am celebrating my body. It’s been our mentality in India that only slim women with fair skin are beautiful. I am rejecting that idea. Women with larger bodies are termed fat, but they are also so beautiful. I am celebrating that in my work,” Chari said.
The 33-year-old argues through her stitchwork argues that women should be treated equally as individuals.
A pillow on the floor reads “I was not created for pleasure”, small embroidered vignettes point at stereotypical gender roles with statements such as “Maggie bana kar lao (make Maggie for me)”, “I want black tea. Make milk tea for me”, “Ye roti hai ya desh ka map (is this bread or the country’s map?)”.
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Talking about her work, Chari said women in India are created by society as “it decides how they have to sit, walk and work”.
“I am working on women’s issues and body politics. And I use certain statements in my work, I also write poems. I think women are not born, they are created by society. How to get up, how to sit, it’s all decided by society. There are rules that say if you are a woman, this is how you have to live and this is what you have to do,” she said.
The Mumbai-based artist added that women are expected to learn certain traits so their mothers-in law don’t complain.
“ Your mother-in-law would complain what did your mother teach you’. This is what my mother taught me,” Chair added, pointing towards her embroidery.
The India Art Fair began on February 1 and concluded on February 4.
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