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Mithu Sen
I am from there. I am from here
2023
White wall and shelf with real and artificial hair, hair sculptures, bronze braids, wooden necklace, metallic thread frozen in 4 clear resin blocks, layered script and contract
Dimensions variable
Courtesy of the artist and Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai
Mithu Sen unpacks and interrogates systems of social exchange, modes of self-representation and notions of the taboo through close readings and manipulations of language and the body. I am from there. I am from here (2023), a mixed-media installation, assumes the form of a poem written with natural and artificial hair in an imaginary, invented script.
Reminiscent of Arabic but intentionally illegible, this linguistic artifice is designed to induce a sense of dyslexia and refusal of access to meaning. Sen’s inclusion of emojis alongside her imaginary language pokes fun at the distinctions between the ‘high art’ of calligraphic script and mass-produced, digitally mediated popular art.
