By Sharanya Gopinathan
Two young artists, 22-year-old illustrator Pakhi Sen and 23-year-old Arts and Aesthetics student Samira Bose have started an exciting new project where they and their friends are recreating legendary artist Amrita Sher-Gil’s self-portraits through photography.
Sher-Gill was often referred to as India’s Frida Kahlo, and her works have been declared National Art Treasures by the Government of India. This new project has women being photographed against backdrops of bedsheets, Banarasi saris and other materials, dressed to resemble Sher-Gil in her self-portraits. Sen told the Hindustan Times that they wanted to “show the wealth of textiles available in India” through their project. It’s a really cool project, and in the finished images, the original paintings are placed beside the photographs. Sen also told HT that they didn’t Photoshop the images at all, except for the lighting, and were surprised at how each women in the series looked, in some way, like Sher-Gil herself.
We’re definitely going to be keeping an eye on these folks: Sen’s next project involves recreating classic paintings, with the male subjects replaced by female. What fun!
This also reminds us of another project we noticed in June 2016, where graphic designer, animator and filmmaker, Gitanjali Rao started Wishfies, or Wish Fulfillment Selfies, which had the artist creating self-portraits with icons like Amrita Sher-Gil, Simone de Beauvoir, Frida Kahlo and others.
Check out the rest of the gorgeous series, and Pakhi Sen’s other work, on her Instagram page.