As they make their way to The Regal Room of Trident Mumbai on Friday, delegates to The Economic Times Women’s Forum will see a stunning art installation in the foyer. Framed around a seven feet high metal stand, it will feature three oil paintings and several charcoal and pencil sketches depicting feminine expressions. A ladder runs up the frame, at the top which is a wood sculpture depicting a hand reaching down to help another. At the bottom of the ladder lies a pair of colourful high heels and a box containing female paraphernalia: a mirror, jewellery, pink fabric, pages of poetry.
“It’s always tricky trying to portray women,” says artist Deepti Nair. “My work incorporates symbols of what we are, of the ambitions we rise up to meet, the sisterhood of giving, the frivolity and sheer fun of holding on to our girlhood. I depict women as human beings with all the complexity of thought, feeling and ambition that men possess.”
A self-taught artist who was formerly an English teacher at Mumbai’s Cathedral School, the 45-year-old Nair was specially commissioned to create a work that would that reflect the themes of ET Women’s Forum. And now that the installation is set to be viewed by the world’s most eminent women, how does she feel?
“I look forward to seeing their reactions to it ,” says Nair. “For me, it was personal expression. How viewers interpret it may be totally different. I’m going to enjoy standing on the sidelines of the conference and watching their faces.”
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The basic idea for the installation actually came from senior artist and Nair’s mentor Arzan Khambatta, who provided the metal stand around which everything is built from his own collection.
“Deepti was nervous about the project at first, so my role was to give her confidence. The final work has a lot of intensity. She’s used the brief that ET gave her really well,” he says.
