My work for the SVA exhibition

As part of my work for the SVA final project and exhibiton, I wanted to work on the subject of dignity and self respect, and what abuse and sexual harassment means to a victim.

I completed a set of portraits of men who had harassed me sexually in my home city. Some of them are as follows:

I created short comics depicting some of the stories of harassment, for the pain and confusion such behaviour has left me with and how it has shattered my trust in people, completely by such men sexualizing me when I barely even knew them nor gave them any such right over me.

An accordion book I created on the irony of innocence and abuse to convey the message that everytime someone abuses anyone else, they are abusing the beauty of innocence that a face and your past holds, which deserves to be dignified only with beauty -

A short comic story on a personal memory -

A NYC exhibtion at The School of Visual Arts

 

July and August saw me complete a summer residency in illustration at the School of Visual Arts in New York with a set of talented and inspiring fellow artists and illustrators, and the exciting month of study and creation of new work was sealed with a small exhibition at SVA on the 8th of August 2019. Sharing here the invite for the exhibition, if only a little later. 

On Bigness and smallness

On The Body

On Ups and Downs

On Baring

On Composure vs Action

On Judgement and Definition

On Compassion and Severity

On sensitization

On the voice

On Equality

On Significance (short comic)

Who is emotional?

Writing poetry
or asserting boundaries
makes no one emotional
and is only
fighting
emotional instabilities
to be able to respect
relationships more
and not flow with
momentary
emotions.
I hope you will
try to know,
appreciate a person for who they are
far more than just a body,
and earn trust
and respect first rather,
than being emotional
with your needs for momentary gratification.
It is you who is emotional,
and I,
only wanting emotional distance
and balance.

Quick

All but I seem
to wait
before I judge
and judge no one
for just a moment
even if we are all responsible for every moment and our every action
all but I
believe people are a whole
and not the parts that make them
all but I
have never imposed moods on the world
all but I
think before I speak
all but I
don't hurt you
all but I
make no conclusions
too soon
all but I don't get riled or angry
all but I
don't blame others for the same
and question myself
for everything that concerns me
all but I
feel no entitlement
to being entertained and kept on my toes
since I understand everyone has shades
and everything will see the same,
all but I
don't tell others they are to blame for not interesting me enough
if they tell me off for feeling disrespected by me
all but I
never try to reign or use people
to show them down
all but I
am fighting no wars
except to fight a war off
all but I
don't tell you to let go
when you consider something important
since I trust what's important to others
all but I
am not imposing myself on others
all but I
want equality
and want to know
and be known
which no one cares for,
and all but I
am not
quick enough
to know,
and all but I
receive love
without deserving it
when they
can barely value it.

FLAW -my first graphic novel - main pages, 2009

 

For more on Flaw, my first experimental and symbolic graphic novel, please visit

https://skyislikesea.blogspot.com/