KOCHI: Artist Radha Gomaty’s recent series ‘Alexa Win This War!’ with 87+1 drawings has between its folds all of Radha’s thoughts and experiences from different stages of her life. “In 2018, I found a primitive memo application by chance. It was a very old model. But it gave me a way to draw quickly and release my anguish,” says the artist. She uses her thumb and fingers to draw surreal images that when put together, tell a bigger story.
“When I drew the title frame of Alexa Win This War!, I was scared to look at it. It appeared too dark. I sent it to some of my friends, to see if they feel it too,” Radha says. Alexa is a character in a story Radha imagined — a weird sex slave in science fiction. She is a moment away from exacting her revenge on the greedy general by castration. As Radha grew comfortable with her character, Alexa became the showstopper of the series.
In 2020, during the lockdown, the digital drawings became a lifesaver for Radha. She felt like people around her were becoming spies, armed with a phone. So, with her fingers, she created stories and poems. The drawings of Christ came with hope along with the two Mariams. Tearful brides striving to guard the honour of their families and tales of everyday women formed the powerful lineups.
“Many told me that the drawing, Actually He Loves Me A Lot, resembles me,” Radha adds. A woman in a nighty stands in the dark with a heavily bruised face, reluctant to admit that she is being abused, still claiming it is love. The drawings of brides are shocking, not because they are provocative, but they have been placed in the backdrop of several dowry-related deaths, murders and suicides.
“I went to the hospital with a minor girl — a victim of multiple cases of abuse — as a bystander during her delivery. Her family was in quarantine and couldn’t go to the hospital. Shockingly, many people, including neighbours, were wondering whether the guy who abused her will marry her. This may be seemingly normal in many societies, and that is where we are,” says Radha. The teeange girl and her plight prompted her to make many more pieces.
However, not all her drawings are dark. There’s intense love in some — like that of passionate lovers who meet under the moon and find solace in each other’s arm. Or like Christ who brings hope and salvation or the Nayikas brave enough to love themselves, and in turn accept love from those they long.