Artist paints a tribute to acid attack survivors

A new exhibition entitled The Print Chamber, by Shivangi Ladha is on view at Delhi’s India International Centre Annexe, till 12 February. For this project, she interviewed survivors of acid attack throughout the world and responded to their stories by using acid to etch their portraits into zinc plates. The exhibition includes 8 prints.

Her aim was to raise awareness about domestic abuses and violence that these women faced. In these series instead of using acid as a destructive tool, she used it as an agent of creation and tried to bring the beauty that lies within each of those individuals. These series of etchings were acquired for the permanent collection of The British Museum, London by the curator of modern art, Stephen Coppel for its Department of Prints and Drawings.

Her previous project was a series of 15 large scale unique prints called Self-portraits. The work asks to reflect on the true identity of human race. The self-portrait in her works is not just a depiction of her being or her solo experiences, but is the collective voice of the crowd which does not stand as an individual entity but as a collective measure. It asks an important question to all humanity: why do we restrict ourselves so much to our bodies and mind, that we don’t think of anything that can exist beyond matter which further forces us to differentiate between gender, sexuality, race, caste, creed, disability and class. Even if, at the end of the day we are all the same and one from within.

She mostly uses drawing and printmaking in her art. In doing so, her intention is to challenge the conventions of drawing. She is also interested to see how her drawings get reproduced through the action of printing across a different surface. She feels this creates a tension between the hand drawn and mechanically reproduced and lends itself to different experiences of the image.

Her work has been widely exhibited Internationally including E/AB Art Fair New York, Art Rooms International Contemporary Art Fair London, New/ Prints Winter Exhibition at International Print Centre New York, Young Subcontinent, Serendipity Art Festival, Goa India, Fragmented Identities: the gendered roles of Women in Art Through the Ages, Mead Museum, Massachusetts to name a few.

The show is on view till 12 February