Among the many hybrid creatures that Gogi Saroj Pal has painted over the decades, the most loved are her birdwoman composites, referred to as kinnaris in ancient Indian texts. While their male versions, kinnaras, are regarded as celestial musicians and are represented in sculpture and art throughout the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, Pal’s kinnaris suggest the freedom that wings bequeath to a woman—even if only in imagination—the ability to fly free even when bogged down by the banality of the chores of one’s lives.
published references
A Place in the Sun: Women Artists from 20th Century India (New Delhi: DAG, 2021), p. 97
Gogi Saroj Pal
Untitled
2008
Gouache on paper
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Gogi Saroj Pal
Untitled
2008
Gouache on paper
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