Mallika Das Sutar

Mallika Das Sutar has done Bachelor of Visual Arts in 2002 and Master of Visual Arts with a specialisation in painting in 2004, both from Rabindra Bharati University Kolkata. Her works embody the uncertainties and fragilities of the current times that we live with. Simultaneously, many of her works point to various ecological aspects and components, which we have ignored, ill-used, and lost. Through her drawings and paintings, videos, soil works, site specific installations, and performances, Mallika tries to question the popular notion of modernity, which is largely backed by inordinate consumerism. Her works are often rooted in the mundane– the everyday life and the surroundings– and develop through exchange and collaboration with the local communities. Those works also talk about and activate ways of repair and revival of habitats, species, water bodies, seeds, foods, traditional knowledge, eventually transmitting a buoyant positivity about our social and ecological future.

Mallika is currently working with the local community in her neighbourhood; together, they are trying to restore the lost knowledge and practice of identifying, scavenging, cooking and eating saag, the edible herbs, which has once been an essential part of the daily meal in a Bengali household.