Marilyn Thipthorpe
She’s risqué but never explicit. She’s flirtatious but fiercely independent. She’s erotic but always safe for work, a welcome sight for your teenage cousin and prudish mother alike. She’s the pin-up girl. Pin-up girls are often associated with gross nudity or exotic sexuality but this was not the intention when the tradition began late in the 19th century. Back then it was only a form of promotion for burlesque girl. Nowadays questions are raised that females are being objectified when they pose as pin-up models. IS this the case? You decide for yourself. What we have for you today is a bird of a different color.
Recently, the internet and social media platforms were set up in flames over the series of pin-ups of ‘brown’ girls, titled “Badass Indian Pinups”. This experiment was conducted by Indo-Canadian artist, Nimisha Bhanot in an attempt to explain Identity and Female Empowerment through Art. Keep these 3 words in mind, while reading further.
Nimisha’s inspiration began back in 2012 with the brutal rape and murder of Jyoti Singh, which rather than focusing on the culprit focused on the victim and in general to women being the main problem. The “Badass Indian Pinups” throws a spotlight of women who are independent, feminine, confident and sexually liberated”. Nimisha says that she was interested in art from a very young age as most children are but never took it seriously until she was in high school. She attributes this change to her high school teacher who gave her a push in the right direction of achieving her dreams. Her parents are supported but reserved about her work as an artist as most of her pieces have evocative political and social messages which may not be taken easily in a country like India which prides itself on tradition no matter how much they make try to look like the Western world. She recalls her shift in education from science to art, as a freeing experience, she says that she felt like a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulder, the weight of a typical educational experience. She likes to think out of the box and her professors have encouraged this in her instead of pressuring her on grades. Art for Nimisha in the serious sense began with various abstractions but she later developed her own style of figurative painting when she discovered the power of the ‘gaze’. Truly it does seem the eyes are the window to the soul, and an artist who can capture than moment is worthy to be called one of the greats.
South Asian art is predominantly revered for its rich, vibrant and creative expression but Nimisha prefers to bypass this or rather incorporate it into her own contemporary pieces which are part of the new movement and focuses more on identity, individualism and tradition. She feels like indentify and individual are more often than not, downplayed in this part of Asia due to filial and social parameters. Her hope is that by creating art which incorporates both these factors will produce a more tangible aspect which will propel the mass to look at things they sweep under the rug. If you take a look at her pieces you will see that none conform nor do they break tradition in any way, rather they present a new way of looking at something that was already present. Nimisha says that she receives inspiration from the everyday lives of women. She hopes that by seeing her paintings women will come to respect the fact that there is no one way to feel empowered, empowerment is in EVERYTHING you do, you just must embrace who you are and stop shaming and blaming yourself, before others can learn to do the same.