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Subaltern

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type setting "colonized?" "colonizer"

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South Asian woman with barbed wire crown, disguised with flowers

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finished broadside

subaltern is a piece that gives a glimpse into a series of questions about the South Asian woman identity that I have wrestled with over the past year. Created in the spring of 2016 at the end of my time at a predominantly white and elite NYC high school, the drawing tries to emulate the beauty I found in my exploration of South Asian art pieces, especially those focusing on the figure and role of the woman. I believe that she radiates the strength and resilience of South Asian women. Today, I return to her with questions of positionality, imperialism, and Truth. The question: "colonized? colonized?" serves to demonstrate the fact that one can at once be both. At the beginning of my quest to understand subalternity, the title of this piece is, at best, a contemplation. 

-- Sahana Mehta, Scripps College '20