Priyanthi Anusha – ‘Black Bindi’ and ‘Mothers Painting’

Priyanthi Anusha’s work navigates the subjectivity of maternity.

In Mother’s Painting, Anusha creates paintings with a mixture of breast milk and charcoal in an action that comments on the gestural work of male artists such as Jackson Pollock and Yves Klein, but also her own status as a new mother.

In Black Bindi, the artist transfers a bindi from her forehead onto audience members, and onto the surrounding, multiplying the apotropaic symbol to the point of absurdity, and thus simultaneously enacting a belief system while also denying it.

This act, themed as Performance Beyond The Body is part of Out of Turn, a project curated by Meenakshi Thirukode and Asia Art Archive.

Image Credits: Priyanthi Anusha, Behind, 2014