This artwork is an attempt to represent the social suffering
women endured during the Partition of India in 1947, and afterwards. When
Indians and future Pakistani men were fighting for every bit of territory,
rapping the woman enemy was like conquering more land. This is why the woman in
the art piece is set at the border of the newly formed countries. Her body is
transformed into a piece of territory and is unjustly stuck in the divide
between two cultures in conflict. Although she cannot express her suffering
through language, her left arm seeks a connection with society (up on the
right); a sort of “bodying forth of words.” The orange and red spiral
represents the distance that separates her and society but also the poetry and
art which can help fill in this void and serve as new forms of communication,
other than language.
