Anjali Deshmukh
Yamuna-I Site Specific Installation/2012
Yamuna I In this piece, the top kadahi is filled with diesel. In the bottom kadahi is a pool of musk ittar floating in water. Swimming in the frying pan is an effigy of the well-known actor Salman Khan, his portrait glued to the head of a blond barbie doll. Artists have incorporated smell into the creation of aesthetic experience for decades. Historically, the sense of smell became a prominent part of social and cultural discussion in the 18th century when scientists began associating smell with illness and bodily dysfunction. In fact, the term 'malaria' is derived from the phrase 'mala aria' or 'bad air.' The concept for this work crosses multiple dimensions related to the seen and unseen, or the Surface and what lies underneath. Perfume in and of itself is a kind of mask and tool for attraction that links to the idea of this exhibition. On another level, the purpose of using ittar in the bathroom suggests another absurd level of masking and exposing. Blending the smell with a seedy, feminized pop star drowning in a frying pan filled with perfume oil suggests another kind of social masking, or the underbelly of social objects of adoration we consume or aspire to be, particularly given that ittar was originally used by royalty. In Delhi, cut into two by a sacred, polluted river emanating its own miasma, smell takes on another kind of political function related to what lies below— the unresolved environmental problems of Delhi and the Yamuna— while also creating an ironic link between religious and Bollywood icons. Anjali Deshmukh
Anjali's installations in the gallery bathroom and on the water tanks have been
Yamuna-I
created specific to Engendered SPACE.
Site Specific Installation/2012 Detail
- Anjali Deshmukh