Sindoor

Sindoor: A Diptych addresses the intimate cost of terrorism and the collective response of a nation when that cost becomes unbearable.

The work centres on women because when violence enters a country, it most decisively enters their lives. Marriage, family, protection, and continuity are the first to be unsettled, and often the first to be destroyed.

Sindoor – Red

In Indian cultural tradition, sindoor is the vermilion worn by married Hindu women as a marker of marital bond and shared life.

Created using materials associated with marital adornment—lipstick, eyeliner, and nail paint—this panel presents a deep red form shaped like sindoor against a white background.

Here, white signifies peace.

The red embodies sindoor itself: love, the sanctity of matrimony, prosperity, happiness, and family.

A fine golden line rests above the red, signifying protection and dignity.

Sindoor – Black and White

The final letter is elongated and violently smudged, opening into a wound.

She has lost her suhaag.

Following the Pahalgam terrorist attack, India carried out Operation Sindoor.

The Diptych as a Whole

Together, the two works hold wholeness and erasure, peace and fury.