Komal Mistri
(b. 1990)
Komal Mistri’s body of work uses altered and/or constructed imagery assisted with found objects resonating the grey areas of memory, identity and space. She primarily relates with the identities of a woman in a domestic space where she constantly struggles to alter her personalities according to her responsibilities, excluding her right to a personal space. She creates enclosed spaces of deconstructed photographs and objects from my memory where one can interact through the doors provided. The camera provides her with a perspective that best renders her personal crisis with existence and identity. The photograph gives an illusion of that challenging existence in the exterior and the interior creating a punctum. The current series delves into the possibility of forming an archive of emotions, primarily through sound, surrounding the phase of childbirth. A vast majority of women are deprived of proper medical attention and are forced to push the limits of their physical capacity in order to complete the process. The socio-economic conditions of rural India constantly thrusts the woman into a gender discriminatory struggle of enduring pain beyond her limits. The artist captures her complex emotions and difficult stances in women’s life documenting the labour room processes through interventionist photographic works and found objects using it as the primary element of her work in order to manifest collective pain and deprivation.
Komal Mistri received a Post-Diploma in Painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Maharaja Sayajirao University, Vadodara and a Diploma in Painting from the Sheth C.N. College of Fine Arts, Ahmedabad. She is the recipient of the Nasreen Mohamedi Scholarship in 2018. Komal has participated in residencies at the Kanoria Centre, Ahmedabad; Feudo Maccari, Italy and the Robyn Beeche residency at Kriti Gallery, Benaras. She has participated in group exhibitions in India and abroad. The current series of works are made possible with the photo grant by the Sher-Gil Sundaram Foundation. The artist lives and works in Vadodara, Gujarat.
