Komal Mistri, a Baroda-based artist has delved into the actions and voices that keeps a labour room going in her latest solo show Come With Your Own Light. The exhibition is on at the Latitude 28 Gallery till June 15, 2024.
When we talk of a labour room, the prominent visions which hit us are mothers –to-be, caring staffs, doctors, equipments, lights, and the sharp, painful pitch of a pregnant woman during childbirth. The exhibition is an outcome of Komal having spent three-months behind the enclosed spaces in several Gujarat hospitals where she observed and documented the process. She captures the unspoken narratives of this sacred and celebratory affair and most importantly the wonderful transformation of a woman into a mother, which is at first marked by vulnerability, unpredictability and trust.
The various exhibits put together or viewed together seem to form an archive of emotions around childbirth. While there are state-of-the art infrastructure for the same, the flip side of the coin is also that several women are denied proper care and treatment during their pregnancy, much of which springs from the socio-economic divide.
Komal takes on the role of a confidante of the individuals as she documents and attempts to collate their pain, memories and shifting psyche. The exhibition shows bottles of blood, placentas, scissors, stretchers, equipments, and more through photographs. Her body of work also allows individuals to reconstruct scenes from the labour room, which are otherwise hazy, with the help of tangible objects found there building up on memory, identity and space.
What: Come With Your Own Light
Where: Latitude 28, New Delhi
Duration: June 15, 2024
