Sati

Trained in Varanasi, Baroda and London, there is hardly a medium that Latika Katt has not explored, choosing the material specifically for the subject she has in mind. Sati memorialises the horrific act of a woman being set alight on her husband’s funeral pyre; the last such act in India was that of Roop Kanwar’s in Rajasthan, who had immolated herself on her husband’s pyre on 4 September 1987. Katt planned this work in papier-mâché, adding seeds and plant fibre to the mix, and imbuing it with the colour of Manikarnika Ghat in Banaras, the most sacred cremation place for Hindus.