All is Fair in Magic White

2008 – 2009

Painted block prints: 2.5ft x 3ft

All is Fair in Magic White is a satirical account of aspiring, tumultuous, dirty and shockingly populated Bombay and its hope for a picture-postcard conversion into a global megapolis of the future. A touch of historicity complicates this troublesome vision by raising questions of power, class and race. A deceptively simple account of popular notions of female beauty reveals not only deeply entrenched cultural and economic inequalities in the post colonial city but also comments on disturbing repercussions of attempts at molding Bombay to resemble those cities that are now discovering far bigger problems of their own. An experiment that ingeniously employs traditional block printing techniques as aesthetic principles governing the storytelling art of this digital film, Archana Hande comments on life, and art. She criticizes the Indian, still post-colonial condition that stimulates an incessant need for magic potions that some think might help whiten existence in her part of the world.

Nupur Jain

Books

Wooden block print on Nepali paper; accordion book,
Dimension: 13.75 x 247 inches / 35 x 627 cms,

Girangaon – The Mill Land of Bombay
scroll 1: 153″ x 22″ (389 x 56cms)
scroll 2: 152 inch X 17 inch
Block prints on Chinese silk and acrylic paint.
2009 & 2011