Mithu Sen

Born in 1971 in Burdwan (India)
Lives and works in New Delhi (India)

Mithu Sen completed her BFA (1995) and MFA (1997) from Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan, Visva Bharati, India and PG Programme from the Glasgow School of Art 2000-2001, UK. Her practice stems from a conceptual and interactive drawing background that has extended into video, sculpture, installation, poetry, sound and performance. Her journey critiques subtle hierarchical codes and hegemonies imposed on society, especially in those areas where humanity becomes a minority, whether sexual, political, regional, emotional or lingual. Swinging between distance and intimacy, Mithu makes the private public by engaging spectators into a game of active voyeurism. Her works not only open the barrier of intimacy to the public space but also highlight the increasing importance of interaction with the public as a part of the production of the artistic experience. Sen has participated and exhibited widely at museums, institutions, galleries and biennales, including Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; TATE Modern, London; Queens Museum, New York; Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, India; MOMAT and Tenshin Memorial Museum of Art, Japan; Peabody Essex Museum, USA; S.M.A.K Museum, Gent; and Palais de Tokyo, Paris; among others.

Shot on a beautiful morning following a storm in Bahia, Brazil, Icarus brings out tragedy in two-ways: first, in the tragic myth of Icarus, who died in a failed attempt to fly by gluing feathers to his arms, and, second, in the sorrowful death of the embryonic bird seen in the video. In this work on view at KB17, an army of ants gathers around a dead bird in an attempt to lift its lifeless body. In the process, the ants make the unformed wings move in a mock flap. As the horrific image merges with the beauty of nature’s life processes, it reveals the futility of dreams and the inevitability of death. In the context of these mythic allusions, the bird, a dreamer, becomes a martyr at the hands of fate and misfortune.