Presentation on Fetishization of South Asian Bodies in Art

Earlier this month, I presented a paper on the fetishization of female bodies in religious art from South Asia, at the Graduate Student Symposium, organized by University of Cincinnati’s School of Public and International Affairs. In my presentation, I spoke about the problematic way museum didactics are written about female figures in Hindu and Buddhist artworks at the Met, and how one can subvert the colonial western gaze on this narrative. As a culmination of the research, I chose to reflect on the topic through a piece of poetry I wrote, which summed up my thoughts about my research topic.

Photos by: Rikki Reese