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The Great Indian Housewife Feminism
How does a professional woman, in this context a woman artist, cope up with the period of child bearing, rearing and the ensuing period of housewifery? Mrinal Kulkarni says that for a woman artist, housewifery is a potential feminist tool to activate the creative process and she asserts that this tool differs considerably from the conventional tools of official feminism.
‘How long will you be taking leave from your profession?’ ‘It is high time you should plan for your shows and projects’. ‘How long are you going to use child rearing as an excuse for not doing anything?’ Whether it be Madhuri Dixit or any other career woman, these are the questions lobbed at them especially after their new motherhood. These questions put the professional women in a peculiar position from where they are expected to take a strong professional decision. Their new ‘motherhood’, however makes them to ‘go slow’ on the professional side though its calling is as emotionally charged as the motherhood.
Several women writers and artists have mentioned how they try to steal time for fulfilling the desires of their souls. This is a reality but even after celebrating the autobiographical language in art there is a deafening silence regarding this in Indian contemporary art. May be it is because they don’t want to be seen as complaining or they accept the second wave feminist idea of family as a “comfortable concentration camp.” A Betty Friedan idea, which clearly states that domesticity, denied housewives of their humanity and potential, making them suffer both physically and mentally. Like camp inmates, housewives get adjusted psychologically and become “dependent, passive, childlike” and live at a “lower human level.” So in professional arena the idea of housewifery as pathology got cemented to feminism.
The silence over this issue was sidelined along with the glorification of various aspects of women’s life through the concept of ‘new goddesses’. Almost all the women artists accept that they have been sandwiched between several roles of being ‘feminist’, ‘mother’, ‘artist’, ‘housewife (with a guilt)’ and so on. Look at the ‘Alice in the wonderland’ series by Nalini Malani that critique this concept of ‘new goddesses’. By the satirical reading of a fairy tale within the context of the picture perfect advertisement of families and their ‘new goddesses’ Nalini Malani also comes to the concept that the housework is a direct expression of man’s oppression of women and capitalism’s exploitation. As such, housework is a surplus labor. The surplus value of housework enables man’s labor. Man’s labor is the unearned profit that capitalism absorbs.
This economic condemnation of housework and its relation to the life of women creates guilt conscience among professional women. In turn this guilt reflects in their professional life too. They are always worried about what would happen to their mind. This ‘postpartum’ syndrome exists so strong in women as well as amongst others that they start doubting the professional caliber of the woman. Many of the woman artists feel sad about it but there is only one work in Indian art history I can remember regarding this is ‘Postpartum’ series by Nilima Sheikh. In this series Nilima extends the biological term to the socio-cultural reading of that psychological state of a professional being. It does not end with the mothering itself but it continues with the creative process of women artists later on.
Now as the basic structure of families has changed a little at least amongst the metro middle class, the women are able to exert their ideas from within and without the domestic sphere. The choice to be a housewife for a short span or indulging in professional work along with child rearing is a conscious decision of the woman. This power to choose has also equipped them to find the supporting systems so that they can get rid of the guilt (of being a bad mother) and involve in their creative pursuit whenever they want to. Choice is the key to individualist feminism and to whether or not housework is damaging to women. These have given them space and time to delve in the different aspects of housework and their life. From outside this choice might look like a confirmative traditional attitude but when you make an entry into their realms you start observing the criticality of the various conflicting issues related to sexuality, gender and socio-cultural reality. Many of the feminist scholars term this as ‘cultural feminism’ as well as ‘housewife feminism’. They almost use them as synonyms as both the categories do not necessarily demand political activism. But this wider feminist approach helps to incorporate the hidden half of woman’s life.
In this context if we look at the chosen title ‘Mrs. Manmeet’ by the Delhi based artist Manmeet for her art performances, the criticality of the qualification ‘Mrs.’ can be felt strongly. For Manmeet the term Mrs. is not a term that designates her secondary status in earlier feminist sense but it is a political choice as she strongly feels that she has to refer to her other part of life as a married woman. Because even after using the title Mrs. there is no indication of any ‘owner’ (husband) through a surname. That is why many of the viewers feel uncomfortable as they could not bracket Manmeet as a person in any category of religion, caste or domesticity. (See Seher’s official report on Manmeet’s performance at its website.)
“I am able to see more clearly why opening your mouth is such a big problem and keeping it shut is even worse. And living your own life the way you want to is a pleasure! And the prejudices never die. They are the birthrights of every Indian or so I feel. They, the prejudices, will kill you before you speak and then slaughter you afterwards. No, hearing a sorry doesn’t help in anyway. For I am not an egoist who will hear it to satisfy my ego. One should feel sorry in order to say it. Sorry for their own words and not for the 50 years of feminism in India (as I was told by someone) as if feminism didn’t exist before that!”(See Manmeet’s essay ‘About Masturbation and Other stories in www.artconcerns.com) By putting these thoughts in words Manmeet brings in a doubt regarding the fixed meanings of certain areas related to the life of a woman. Feminism for her is not just a framework to look at the things but it is way of living.
Like Mrs. Manmeet, Bharati Kher is one of the young woman artists for whom feminism is not related to the ‘other’ but to herself. Bharti Kher’s works also bring out this layered aspect of woman’s life. Whether it is family portrait photographic- prints titled ‘Hybrids’, or the recent ones in her show titled ‘An Absence of Assignable Ccause’ Kher’s work often play with everyday scenes and objects. The mundanity of the objects, daily rituals of posing in social, cultural milieu which defines the identity, continue to be the focus of her works. For several years the interiors of the upper middle class households have been the space and object of her witty creations like painting, sculptures and digital prints.
Bharati Kher brought her feminist approach into the interiors of a household by transforming the same through decorating the utilitarian objects and their surfaces. Bharati makes it a point that for her ‘the feel of the surface’ is very important as that creates an interesting play of the intended and the real meanings. The use of feminine bindis on masculine realistic animal sculptures really questions the feminine concept of hobby (decoration of gods and goddess images with sequins and colorful threads) as well as the masculine understanding of hobby (hunting and boasting of it with the stuffed bodies of hunted animals). The closeness of the object and the duality of her own position as an Indian born and brought up in Britain who later on decided to settle down in India create a pointed feminist critique in her works.
The personal has become a defining aspect of many woman artists of the younger generation. That gets pronounced through the objects, spaces and the creative processes of these artists. Their creative process becomes an extension of their life. Different phases of their lives in a household as mother, daughter, wife and an individual construct the concept of art and the process of creation. At various moments their creations look confirmative but from within there are various planes and layers of questioning.
Here I would also like to talk about the recent works of Pooja Iranna, who extend her creative process through mothering. Many of her recent works deal with the process of mothering which has empty, solid, flat, three dimensional spaces but all together a solid structure woven with cultural, moral and social layers. Her installation titled ‘To my kids with love…’ is an apt expression of this concept of ‘personal’.
This is what makes an interesting turn in Indian contemporary art where now feminism is not just an issue related to iconicity, gaze or her-storical readings. It is not just reading of an outside thing but it has penetrated within the realm of household. The critique of the space and objects traditionally given to women would really bring in a new life to the Indian feminist aesthetics in visual arts as this has been achieved in vernacular literature.
I remember reading somewhere that patriarchy is such a solid wall which you cannot break by banging your head but you can break it by planting a sapling in its labyrinth. That will bring several cracks in the wall. So now it is planted and the cracks are coming in and we can hope that these cracks would allow fresh air in the ‘interiors’ of the Indian feminist aesthetics.
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