Lot 54: Phantom Lady or Kismet ; Phantom Lady or Kismet

N. Pushpamala (B. 1956)
Phantom Lady or Kismet ; Phantom Lady or Kismet
inscribed 'Pushpamala N.P.L. 1996 - 1998' (on the reverse of each)
black and white photograph
20 x 16in. (50.8 x 40.6cm.); 16 x 20in. (40.6 x 50.8cm.)
Both edition 4/10

New York, Bose Pacia Gallery, Indian Lady , April - May 2004.
Chicago, Walsh Gallery, Phantom Lady and Sunhere Sapne , 2003.

Using her own likeness as a starting point, N. Pushpamala adopts a multitude of female characters in her work, drawing attention to cultural stereotypes and playing with gender roles. Beginning her career as a sculptor, the artist was well known for her avant-garde work in terracotta before turning to photography in the late 1990s. Adopting an aesthetic steeped in the conventions of South Asian cinema, her various series' of photographs follow in the wake of Eleanor Antin and Cindy Sherman in their use of self-portraiture as a mechanism for unearthing latent stereotypes and implied typecasting of women. Pushpamala distances herself from her artistic predecessors in the level of theatricality she imbues in her photos. Masquerade and impersonation are taken to outlandish and blatantly fictional levels and oftentimes her work makes no effort to resemble actual spaces or settings, instead reveling in fantasy.

This series draws from the conventions of cinema, evoking film stills taken from the reel of an old movie. A staccato narrative blooms from the six works, speaking of a forbidden love, murder, escape, corruption and thwarted desire. She leaves the exact meaning of the story decidedly vague, allowing the viewer to fill in the missing scenes between each image. Filled with melodrama, pathos, and over the top action, the work embodies many of the characteristics typical to B-grade Indian movies. In speaking on the series, she states that Phantom Lady is "my first photo-romance and still my favorite work. It uses both the forms of the stunt film and the thriller and is shot in a noir style in real locations all over Mumbai. I play two characters, twins separated in childhood, one inspired by the 1930s Hindi film stunt star, Fearless Nadia, who is a Zorro-like character, and the other of a vamp, the moll of the mafia Don. It is an homage to the great metropolis of Bombay." (Fabrice Bousteau, Made by Indians , Galerie Enrico Navarra, Paris, 2007, p. 341.) Playing both the role of the masked avenger and the sultry female lead, the artist is able to act out not only a fictive narrative, but the real world dichotomy inherent in womanhood, she is able to simultaneously be an object of desire, kept and protected, while be the independent and dangerous woman of action. It is both comical and impressive, how well she executes both roles.

In these two images, originally from a portfolio of 24, Pushpamala herself is the protagonist and in spite of their cinematic quality they can be seen as staged self-portraits. Commenting on her choice of subject matter which repeatedly returns to the artist's own likeness, Pushpamala states that her usage of the self-portrait far exceeds the shallow catches of narcissism and self-absorption. She states, "The Mother Goddess is worshipped in the form of a polished metal mirror in certain shrines in Kerala. The mirror can be used to examine the soul, not only the physical body." (Interview with N. Rajyalakshmi, Pushpamala N.: Indian Lady , Bose Pacia, New York, unpaginated)