Painted In Silk, Rooted In Reality

HYDERABAD: Some look directly at you, others glance away. But none of them let you pass without feeling seen. Portraits caught between stillness and assertion, the women in Olympe Ramakrishna’s boldly coloured 'Women of Urban India' art installation, are everyday women.

They appear as friends, colleagues, neighbours, those whose presence can be found lingering in kitchens, on WhatsApp calls, in office corridors, in the stretch between morning chores and late-night solitude. Their faces, which are rendered in oil on dupion silk, call attention to the kind of femininity that doesn’t ask for attention, yet they deserve it.

“They want you to look at them. It is a direct call to the viewers. It is intended to tell people we are here and we will be here so please look at this. At us,” said Maud Miquau, director of Alliance Française Hyderabad (AFH), where the installation was inaugurated on Saturday, June 7. “Tonight is all about women,” she added.

Prior to the inauguration, the artist Olympe Ramakrishna notes, "This is my way of telling stories visually. I have portrayed women between the ages of 20 and 40 who are my neighbours and friends, living in Bengaluru for the past 15 years."

Through symbolism and colour, she portrays tradition and modernity in a rapidly shifting India with eleven women as the muse. The sari, thus becomes a medium of assertion as Olympe's bold palette draws from India's vibrancy as she imbibes Western influences. "My influences are Amrita Sher-Gil and Frida Kahlo. While French audiences engage with the technical aspects, in India, there’s a stronger interest in the stories and individuality of each woman,” she notes.

These portraits flutter like sarees left out to dry on a rooftop, loose, informal and personal. Art collector Laxmi Rao, who inaugurated the show alongside the artist and director, called this shift from canvas to silk radical. “Because you put them in a saree and not a canvas, you can feel closer to these people,” she said.

You don’t stand at a distance admiring the art. You walk under it, past it, beside it, as though walking through a home you’ve visited before, hearing stories that might just be your own. As the portraits come together in collective strength, each sari becomes a panel of strength as feminine identity, resilience and grace.

This exhibition will be on view at Alliance Française, Hyderabad from June 8 to 15.