Rupali Patil's work 'If we opened people up, we’d find landscapes' focuses on women’s bodies

The landscape of our bodies form the crux of Rupali Patil's showcase, titled If we opened people up, we’d find landscapes, as a part of Experimenter Ballygunge Place's ongoing exhibition, Artists for Artists.

Rupali Patil on exploring various media

Trained as a printmaker, Rupali Patil explores various media in her practice, redefining their boundaries through a socio-political lens. Her works focus on how women’s bodies—their fluidity, symbiotic relationship, and interconnectedness—are impacted by environmental degradation and capitalist structures.

In this showcase, Rupali is pursuing her ongoing inquiry of the challenges faced by female sugarcane workers, specifically in the Beed district of Maharashtra, where their health is disproportionately affected by social and economic pressures of industrialisation.

She says, "I have seen the women sugarcane workers of Maharashtra go through hysterectomy, i.e. removal of their uterus in large numbers so that they can work everyday, without any problem. I see this as capitalism and the effect of capitalism on women's bodies," she adds.

She often uses ecofeminism as a framework for understanding the woman’s body as a tangible entity. If we opened people up, we’d find landscapes, says Rupali and she presents new drawings that span various stages of her practice and a new sculptural installation.

While one body of work depicts shifting landscapes and the space held by architecture within them, another exhibited at Rupali recent solo exhibition in Berlin, explores fluid corporeality in search of a more potent and powerful force, invoking references to menstruation. Her sculptures in the exhibition draw attention to unacknowledged labour, both human and ecological, drawing a parallel between mycelial networks and feminine contributions, which are often undervalued.

The exhibition is on till June 14.

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