Telling stories of cities imagined and real, capturing a personal moment or commenting on larger political issues, it is the week for solo shows by women artists. In keeping with the same, the city is hosting three blockbuster shows. A good blend of message and medium, the works are by Mumbai based Shilpa Gupta, Delhi based Vibha Galhotra, and Bangalore based Minam Apang.

Apang has dug into local stories and myths form North-Eastern cities. Retold by Verrier Elwin, they create a world of fantastical beings rendered in her signature style which is graphic and linear. She renders her stories on paper with spontaneity and pizzazz.

Galhotra creates imaginary landscapes of images inspired by the metropolitan, capturing teeming slums, high-rise buildings and the tangled wires of electric poles. Gupta is showcasing works from over a year-and-half. Sound, light and image installations capture her personal and political concerns.

Apang, who is showing at the Chatterjee and Lal Gallery near Radio Club, is revisiting her childhood through this body of works. “I was not brought up in the North-East. In fact, I went to a convent school in Mussoorie where we were taught sacrificing animals was a pagan practice. It was in direct contrast with the practices back home. I needed to rediscover these old stories and reconnect with my native land which is why I chose to work on the story of the War with the Stars. What I like about this narrative is that it’s open-ended and can have a number of readings,” says Apang, who makes it clear that a political reading was not intended in the work.

Gupta, on the other hand is explicitly political, her latest sound installation, Tryst with Destiny is a singing microphone that has a recording of Nehru’s speech on the day of Independence. This work is off set by a light piece that spells out the words, Blind stars, Stars blind. These works were shown at Bodhi, Berlin and now travel to Mumbai to be shown at Bodhi Gallery in Kala Ghoda and Bodhi Space at Orange Gate, from October 11 to 31.

“I am also showing two shadow play pieces that are interactive. Personal photographs of children who cover each others eyes, ears and mouths in a hear-no-evil-speak-no-evil gesture. The overarching theme of the show is the coalescing of the personal and political,” says Gupta, who’s work also comments on the proliferation of electronic gadgets and the unending crowds of Mumbai.

Crowds are something that interests Galhotra as well. Her canvases speak of the clash of masses of humanity with teeming concrete structures. Mannequin-guards dressed in fatigues that are covered with images of these structures appear to patrol the gallery space while gold lettered signs caution the viewer of Work in progress. “I was inspired by the upheaval of construction in Delhi—the Master Plan 2010—but what you see is generic cities, my comment is on environmental degradation and the costs future generations pay in the bargain,” says Galhotra whose show at Project 88, Colaba, is on till October 18.