God Is A Woman
Bhavika Bhatia
Many Hindus are familiar with myths featuring epic battles and valiant heroes, but the feminine energies of Vedic literature are largely ignored. In For God Is A Woman, I turn my attention to the lesser known stories of Hindu goddesses.
I pay homage to these mythologies by reframing feminine archetypes in a variety of humdrum forms. I use animated gifs, business cards, seed packets, and a board game as mediums for the characters’ narratives. Goddess Sita, for example, was born from the soil of the earth, led a life of neglect and marital/sexual abuse, and eventually returned to the soil of the earth to die. Saraswati, goddess of arts and education, is represented by a children's board game that not only educates the players, but walks them through her life plagued with sexual harassment and emotional abuse. Goddess Lakshmi of wealth and prosperity is depicted through business cards, each one revealing an avatar of hers. The goddess of sacrifice; time; death, Kali, can be seen through animated posters using bold colors and iconography. Finally, Rati, goddess of lust and carnal desire, holds the project of a sex kit designed in an apothecary style of graphic typography.
These stories say something fundamental about womanhood. By presenting them in a modern context, I hope to give them a fresh, contemporary relevance.