Oil on canvas.

24x30"

****Work Not For Sale (NFS)******
My self-portrait, "Ambivalence of Mimicry," explores the interconnections and influences between Eastern and Western cultures and traditions. A predominant colonial ideology in the West is that the East never meets the West; however, cultural traditions, theories and artistic practices have been dispersed and appropriated between the East and West for millennia. A famous 1960s Indian film, Mughal-e-Azam, starring the prominent actress Madhubala, represents the history of the Mughal empire through a fictional story created by British colonizers that has been appropriated and upheld in South Asia. Finding that the Indian subcontinent was not regressed and uncivilized compared to the West, colonizers fabricated a story of how the Mughal Prince Salim was in love with a fictional character, Anarkali, and upon discovering this, Emperor Akbar executed Anarkali through immurement. In my portrait, I assume the role of Anarkali, played by Madhubala, depicting myself with a double face that embodies the actual and imagined history of the Mughal empire. The notion of fictional ideologies created by a dominant group becoming accepted as the truth through continuous repetition relates to Homi Bhaba’s concept of the ambivalence of colonial mimicry: the desire for a subject of a difference, almost the same but not quite/not white.
Unlike the ornate and highly decorative sets of Mughal-e-azam, my portrait has a plain background and traditional portrait composition used in Western photo studios. The figure wears a Kundan jewelry set; the necklace appears Western if seen without the headpiece and earrings. Similarly, the headdress resembles blonde hair yet is a gold satin Hijab. These nuanced symbols make the viewer question what separates Eastern cultures from the West and why we feel unsettled when the East merges with the West.