Untitled

An alumna of Sir J. J. School of Art, Bombay, Navjot has had several fruitful linkages with marginalised social groups throughout her career. If Marxist ideology was the inspiration for her works in the 1970s, in 1997 she co-founded the Dialogue Interactive Artists Association with tribal artists from Bastar in central India. This head study in wood bears a distinct tribal inspiration. Resembling masks used in various important rituals in tribal communities, the bulbous eyes and the gasping mouth in this work could allude to a sense of wonder experienced by the wearer. The choice of indigo, however, has a politico-historical bearing as the cultivation of this dye was an important tool of exploitation of Indians by British colonial rulers in the nineteenth century.