User:ChloSchmo/gap analysis

Gap analysis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pushpamala_N.

The artist that I researched on Wikipedia for this project was Pushpamala. I first discovered the gaps associated with her page while trying to decide on a topic to analyze, one of the first places I searched was the wiki link provided on our foundation page marked “Feminism and the Arts”. Upon clicking it and browsing through the list of feminist artists, I noticed that Pushpamala was not listed, but did have her own dedicated page. The page itself is sparse in a few different ways: First, Wikipedia hardly mentions Pushpamala as a feminist artist or having feminist themes or motives in her art despite all of her work being very much part of the movement. The only lip-service given to her states that ‘Native Women of South India’ “ looks at photography as an ethnographic tool and deconstructs the popular images of the 'native' woman”. There isn’t even a mention as to what stereotype or gender binary, or male domineering traditional power structure she’s actually addressing. 2. She is described as being trained or influenced by three different male artists, none of whom have her mentioned on any of their Wikipedia pages. This once again encourages a student/master ideology which devalues the work of women, specifically ethnically diverse women, suggesting a need of male influence to succeed and 3. She is compared to one female artist, Cindy Sherman (who is a cis, white, hetero American) despite the themes and agendas of their photography being different. Both may tell a story of photo-romance, but Pushpamala revolutionizes what it means to be a woman of color taking control over photos of ethnography, gender roles in Indian history, and de-stabilizing a woman’s “place” in traditional art. Comparing her to a white American female feminist artist just because they share a method of storytelling is colonial, destructive, and doesn’t give justice to individual creativity.

Begin by removing the bottom portion of her bio, which currently states “ Pushpamala N.'s work has often been compared to American artist Cindy Sherman's”. By eliminating this unnecessary comparison, Pushpamala’s work may have a better chance at standing alone and avoiding some of the connections and oppressions associated with the “gift” of white influence and colonialism in modern global artist’s work. Secondly, if any male artists should be mentioned as directly influencing her work, it should be her friend and inspirer Bhupen Khakar who encouraged photo performance, and his own page should reflect Pushpamala’s individual success, friendship, and influence in his own life in order to paint a more complete picture of the symbiotic relationship artists and other people have for one another without regard to gender roles. Furthermore, I’d link Pushpamala to Wikipedia’s list of feminist artists, and provide several links to each of her works giving them each their own photo, description, history, and feminist relevance. For instance, describing Toda, from Native Women of South India- Manners and Customs 2004, a sepia toned 24 x 20in re-production and re-imagination of an ethnographic print. This piece is representative of feminism by demonstrating how male and colonial gaze have historically eliminated the humanness of women by making them test subjects or objects of learning as collective postcards, trinkets, and other merchandise to capitalize on the “exotic”. The performed nature of this work mimics the things we have seen as normative in the past, and stands alone not as an inventory or collection, but engages and investigates and epistemological scope while remaking them from the inside out. By doing so, Pushpamala challenges the power structures of race, gender, and the privilege of who gets to be behind the lense, as well as addresses how the subject becomes the empowered through re-telling.

Kapur, Geeta. Gender Mobility: Through the Lens of Five Women Artists in India, 2006. Print. http://www.portrait.gov.au/content/pushpamala-n http://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/pushpamala_n.htm http://www.theartstrust.com/Magazine_article.aspx?articleid=186 http://cacno.org/artists/pushpamala-n