Arts_Illustrated_-_February-March_2016

DIGITAL COPY ON MAGZTER

A

clever inversion of what could

otherwise easily be perceived as

a cliché punctuates the feminist

structuring behind ‘Fall and Rise,’ Princess

Pea’s latest series of 500 toy sculptures that

will debut at the design store of India Art

Fair. Handmade by traditional craftsmen in

the village of Etikoppaka where the tradition

of making toys, decorative ornaments and

images of deities dates back to 300 BC,

the doll is the wooden embodiment of its

progenitor – Princess Pea. She was conceived

in 2008 by an anonymous Delhi-based artist

who had made the inimitable giant head

with pea-shaped ears to creatively resist the

unnatural ideals of beauty thrust at women

over centuries by the patriarchal forces that

be. When pressed, the unassuming button

at the base of the pedestal destabilises

the toy sculpture. Within seconds, the

erect being with boxing-gloved hands

seemingly collapses only to rise feistily and

spontaneously from her apparent posture of

defeat. ‘All I wanted was to work with the

key word of "strength", with the delicate

approach and visual language I have been

working with,’ said Princess Pea’s maker.

‘This toy sculpture can also be seen as a

symbol of standing up, and as an ambassador

which tries to embody the idea of power and

raising your voice.’

Princess Pea’s etymological beginnings can

be traced to Hans Christian’s Anderson’s

fairytale of ‘The Princess and the Pea’ and

Simone de Beauvoir’s 1949 dictum – ‘One

is not born a woman, one becomes one’. A

serendipitous gesture led to the birth of the

iconic figurine. Her maker had ploughed

the land to combine different kinds of

clay that formed the dough that was used

to create her original prototype; a giant,

hollow, quasi-female head that was sculpted

and left to set. A fresh wild shoot sprouted

through the texture of the scalp, fortuitously

animating the sculpture, transforming it

from a non-living representational structure

By Rosalyn D’Mello

Princess Power

DeBUTiNG aT iNDia aRT faiR, PRiNcess Pea’s laTesT seRies of 500 ToY

scUlPTURes aRe a ReMiNDeR of wHaT THe aNoNYMoUs DelHi-BaseD

aRTisT HaD oRiGiNallY iNTeNDeD THeM To Be – a sUBVeRsiVe PReseNce

aND a RefeReNce To THe HisToRical oPPRessioN of woMeN

Design

(^106) / arts illustrated / feb 2016 - mar 2016 /IAF - Delhi Connecting Art