The Kitchen
2007
This work is a Video Installation, consisting of a six minute video loop and a constructed architectural replica of an Indian Kitchen. The Kitchen addresses issues pertaining to gender bias and gender inequality within patriarchal Indian society. In India women spend most of their time performing domestic chores. Kitchen is used as a refuge to escape the conjugal eye and control. It gives her the freedom and authority normally denied to her. Kitchen becomes her domain. “You don’t know where it is and you’ll make a mess in my kitchen”, becomes the refrain for reinforcing exclusive usage. Over a period of time, the kitchen becomes this claustrophobic space that she cannot escape; yet she must endure. The Kitchen becomes a metaphor for the hardships and labour that women often endure. The installation consisting of sound and heat is accompanied by video projection shot from various middle class kitchens in Mumbai.
