In Protest Fantasies, Chitra Ganesh continues to address issues that are central to her practice, including mythologies, gender and sexuality politics, and the fantastical possibilities of bodies in excess. This new body of work features richly painted canvases that build upon the mixed media works on paper for which the artist is known. Here, Ganesh enhancies the vivid hues and color saturation characteristic of her digital collages by integrating sculptural materials in these paintings and drawings, as in her large-scale wall installations. The works, which range from groupings of small works to large individual pieces, feature areas of saturated color overlaid with three-dimensional ephemera, including fake fur, silk flower petals, sequins, plastic snakes, gold chains, broken glass, hair extensions, and peacock feathers, among other materials. The works in Protest Fantasies act as poetic meditations on images of protest, aligning them with performative actions in contemporary cultures across the globe. Ganesh says, “The themes I’m focused on in this new series range from widespread demonstrations against police violence in the United States, to protesting land grabs and mining of ancestral forests, to commemorating garment workers’ rights in South Asia, to honoring the Russian punk activists Pussy Riot. This series explores the connections, aesthetic and political, that these moments of resistance share.”
