Sex, Carnage, and Words: Artist Chitra Ganesh's World

Brooklyn-born artist Chitra Ganesh has caught the attention of the art world with her dark, dreamlike images incorporating both a touch of carnage and pop art playfulness to create surreal, sexually-charged work. Ganesh's art has been exhibited internationally and featured in publications including The New York Times, Art Asia Pacific and The Los Angeles Times.

Trained in both literary and visual arts, Ganesh’s images speak about the condition of women in myth and reality, reflecting the images that shaped her world growing up. Here's what she had to say about the development of her unique artistic vocabulary.

When did you realize that you are an artist?
I had always been interested in art, so I always felt myself to be an artist in childhood — it was my interest and passion. But in terms of doing it professionally, that would be about ten or 11 years ago.

How would you describe your work?
Drawing is still the primary component. I work in photography. I do large-scale wall drawings with little sculptural elements in them like plastic pieces and flowers and disco balls. The drawing and painting itself is done with ink and acrylic, directly on the wall. I also paint and do drawings on paper, and also sculpt...

Your work has a very distinctive look. What point of view would you say informs your work?
I think a lot of artists would probably say this, too, but for me it's the confluence of the specific influences and things that I look at. For example, music is a big source of inspiration for me, so listening to qawwali [traditional Islamic music of the South Asia region] music, as well as punk rock and girl rock and also Bollywood music. Music and literature are a big source of inspiration for me because there is a lot of text in my work — an interest in language and an interest in figuring out how to indicate [and] introduce it into my work.

How has language found a role in your work?
I studied comparative literature at Brown University. In the process, translation became an important aspect in my work. I brought that into my art by creating work that incorporates text where there is a poetic relationship between image and the text, not necessarily a direct one. You can see this in my comic work; you can see this in some of my wall drawings. And then I also work in collaboration with another artist, Mariam Ghani, and it's called Index of the Disappeared. That's about the human costs of post-9-11 detention and deportation. And that project is centered on language.

You're also a teacher. Tell me a little bit about that.
I teach high school mostly and also [at the] undergraduate college level. I teach at Parsons The New School For Design, and I've also lectured at the Museum of Modern Art, and at a nonprofit art organization that's very well known called Art in General, and at a lot of different types of art spaces. I think for my own work and also to make our understanding of what is art and who an artist is, is more broad. It's very important to participate in generating a dialogue around artwork amongst audiences that may not have a professional orientation towards art.

And you're also still working with the South Asian Women Creative Collective.
Yes, absolutely. I'm not on the board but I do contribute and do outreach for particular events, and I'm definitely extremely involved with other artists, writers and so forth who are part of the collective. I am involved in—I mean I'm in and out—of a lot of social movements and organizations. I wouldn't say I have a leadership role, but I'm very much aware of and participating in anti-detention and [anti-]deportation work and immigrants' rights.

Would you say that you have a mission to your work?
I don't know if I would use the word “mission.” I guess I would say “commitment”.... I'm interested in exploring parts of stories that don't necessarily get told or highlighted—stories that have often been excluded from the canon like looking at feminist interpretations of traditional mythology… and looking at some of the gender dynamics and how they tell us how to live and who we are. I'm interested in contributing to some kind of emerging canon of Asia art, which has not been at the front and center of the mainstream art world. I'm interested in expanding the canon. I think, historically, there's been a disproportionate lack of women represented in different artistic canons and artistic movements. I'm aware of that and interested in continuing to push the boundaries of what gets legitimately characterized as art.

For more on Chitra Ganesh, visit her official site at: http://www.chitraganesh.com/

Elaine G. Flores is a New York-based writer and editor, who specializes in covering beauty, style and entertainment.