Pushpamala N プシュパマラ・N

Pushpamala N (born 1956) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Bangalore, India. Initially trained as a sculptor, she began creating 'photo-performances' and staged mises-en-scène (constructed scenarios) in the mid-1990s, assuming various roles to craft elusive and thought-provoking narratives. Her work engages with themes including the construction of the feminine and the scaffolding of the nation-state. Described as "the most entertaining artist-iconoclast of contemporary Indian art," Pushpamala N inserts herself into the frame, positioning herself at the centre of social inquiry and exploring the artist's role as both creator and product of historical forces.

At KYOTOGRAPHIE 2025 Pushpamala N will exhibit three major work series, including The Arrival of Vasco da Gama, which was recently exhibited at Tate Modern. Based on the 1898 Orientalist painting by José Veloso Salgado, Pushpamala N inserts herself into the role of Vasco da Gama, the Portuguese explorer credited as the first European to discover a new sea route to India, which opened up Asia to European colonialism. Also exhibited will be her Mother India Project, an ongoing investigation into historical representations of Mother India. Through these works, the artist's body becomes the body politic, tongue-in-cheek and imbued with humour, while she re-enacts various personifications of India throughout history through an exploration of archival material, popular culture, ethnography, archeology, epigraphy and eugenics.