Reimagining Nirbhaya: An artist’s ode to December 16 victim

New Delhi

Nine years ago, the gang rape of a young woman in a moving bus in Delhi stirred citizens not just in India but across the world, to rise and demand justice for the braveheart. Some started to call her Nirbhaya — the fearless one. And this is the name that compelled US-based Indian artist Pritika Chowdhry, who grew up in Delhi, to recall all those times when she used to take buses from south Delhi’s Munirka to Noida. “It was just too close to have objectivity about it,” says the artist-curator who had earlier worked on the topic of rape as a weapon of war, but, in retrospect, found it difficult to engage with this particular case as an artist. Having pulled herself out of that emotion, the Chicago-based artist says she now feels confident to talk about her new art project that reimagines the December 16 rape case victim as a superheroine.

In a series of drawings, which are part of an experiential art installation that is currently accessible online (www.nirbhaya.art). Chowdhry, the artist pours out her thoughts and impressions from all that she witnessed as an individual, a woman and an artist. Although commenting on the incident from an artist’s perspective, wasn’t easy for her. “I felt like that could have been me… As a woman, I was outraged and upset. As a survivor myself, it brought back some distressing memories. The December 16 case stayed with me for many years,” confesses Chowdhry, adding, “In late 2017, I had a daughter, and just like that it changed things for me. I felt it was urgent for me to do something… my small part in eradicating this scourge of rape from our country. In 2018, I started to make some small drawings based on my thoughts about the case. From almost the very beginning, I imagined Nirbhaya as a superheroine character, whose superpower is that she can eradicate rape and sexual violence in all its forms. I wanted to create a visual language to talk about these topics with small girls as well as boys.”

The Nirbhaya Project, divided into several elements, includes a series of text-based works made in 2018 and 2019, where Chowdhry explored the word ‘Nirbhaya’ and its meaning through different mediums — pencil, pen, paint and printmaking — also creating bracelets that people can wear to show solidarity with the cause. And the other element of this project is a series of drawings that she started sketching at an artist residency in 2019, and developed the superheroine avatar. “Since no photos of Nirbhaya were released, I inserted my own face and body to create this character. I even took martial art classes for a few months to really get into character! In this series, I made charcoal drawings of enlarged comic book panels. Nirbhaya is shown in various action poses and also thoughtful states in these panels,” explains Chowdhry, illustrating: “For example, in one panel she is training in martial arts and her speech bubble says ‘I am becoming fearless’. And she is answered by speech bubbles of several other Nirbhayas, ‘Me too!’ In another, she is giving a strong kick to a bad guy, and the text bubble simply says ‘Kapow’.”

Resolution in the Nirbhaya case came after seven long years, during which the victim’s mother Asha Devi relentlessly sought justice for her deceased daughter. Her portraits, done in silverpoint and graphite, are also part of this project and pay tribute to her and IPS officer Chaya Sharma, lawyer Seema Kushwaha, and anti-rape activist Yogita Bhayana, as real-life sheroes. And the ‘Anonymous Nirbhaya masks’ reimagine the anonymous mask for an Indian woman’s face with a bindi, a nose stud, kajal, and lip colour. “It’s a tribute to the hundreds of thousands of protestors who took to the streets after the December 16 incident, and forced the government to take action. The final element of the project is an art installation, which brings all of these elements together. The drawings have been enlarged and printed on long panels of sheer fabric, which are hung from the ceiling. Also hung the large comic book panels in frames,” she adds, hoping that the art installation is able to travel to an Indian museum or gallery, too.

Looking at the past and present, from 2012 to 2021, when asked to contemplate if anything has changed, the artist-activist replies: “One very heartening change that I can see is that the social narrative has changed from secrecy and shame for the woman victim, to shaming and naming the rapists and perpetrators. Another unexpected but good change that I see is that the December 16 incident may have set the stage and opened the door so to speak, for the #MeToo movement in India. What has not changed is the high incidence of rapes. Nirbhaya’s fight is not over. And that’s the reason why I’m talking about it now, because it’s time. In fact, it’s time for a revolution.”

Author tweets @siddhijainn

Follow more stories on Facebook and Twitter