Through masks and memories, this artist’s solo show in Hyderabad tells a story of resilience

Artist Anupama, who goes by the name Anupama alias Anil as a tribute to her late husband and artist Anil Xavier, ushers in a new language of expression through her solo show A Room for Refuge at Kalakriti Art Gallery. The exhibition brings her mixed media works and assemblages, each shaped by personal experiences.

Her mixed-media works are populated with self-portraits wearing masks, set against abstract, layered landscapes that symbolically mirror the complexities of the mind — interwoven with thoughts, memories, and lived moments.

Recurring motif

Anupama often uses her own face as a recurring motif, but her work also references the broader experience of womanhood. “I am part of it, but there are others too,” she says, positioning herself as both subject and collective voice. This introspective journey began in 2014 during what she calls an “intense time” in Hyderabad. Alone in her studio, she found herself conversing inwardly, as stories and characters from her childhood merged into a fusion of emotions and imagination. The experience, she recalls, was “intense but blissful” — a moment that blurred the lines between individual and collective experience and inspired her to explore deeper themes of interiority and existence.

Mixed-media works

While pursuing her Master’s in Fine Arts at Hyderabad Central University, Anupama began to engage with ideas of womanhood, femininity, and the social realities of women. She sourced rice paper from Kolkata to create depth and layering in her mixed-media works — a process that, for her, became symbolic of self-discovery. “I felt like a woman whose flesh slowly uncovered the layers,” she says, referring to her Island of Hope series.

Her early influences include the striking African masks she encountered at the Louvre Museum in Paris, and Theyyam, the ritual art form of Kerala where performers wear elaborate masks and headdresses. For Anupama, the mask symbolises transformation and power. “It makes the performer a divine being who transcends to another realm,” she explains. “The audience too experiences a kind of social transformation — in that moment, the boundaries and inequalities between them and the performer dissolve.”

Anupama’s work not only explores vulnerability and transformation but also the emergence of identity and hope. In her research on masks, she examined the histories of Latin American cultures and their deeply rooted belief systems. “The women I depict may have vulnerabilities and face challenges, but they also undergo transformation. The mask becomes a symbol of power — a way to lead, to choose,” she notes.

Among the most personal pieces in the exhibition is a portrait of a Malayali couple from the 1980s — a self-portrait with her late husband Anil, dressed in traditional attire, with a trunk box placed in a corner of the canvas. The assemblages displayed in the show are drawn symbolically from this very box, holding fragments of memory and emotion.

“My husband Anil, who passed away in 2024, was a great inspiration,” she says. “He was the co-sculptor of the statue of Rohit Vemula (the Dalit student whose death at Hyderabad Central University sparked nationwide protests against caste discrimination). I came from an applied arts background and wasn’t sure of my artistic direction, but he was the one who encouraged me to pursue it.”

A Room for Refuge is on view at Kalakriti Art Gallery until November 5.