Pushpamala’s video art on Paris inspires a baroque installation

It began with the screening of a short film, Autumn in Paris, a Gothic horror tale, at the Nature Morte gallery, Delhi, in September last year. Now, Delhi-based artist Pushpamala N has expanded her video-art piece into a baroque installation. After travelling to Bose Pacia Gallery, New York, two months ago, it has come to Chemould Prescott Gallery in Mumbai. The expanded show is complete with velvet showcases, lobby cards, publicity posters and film stills — the over 30 exhibits come with an Art Deco feel to it.

“I’ve been working on this project for over a year. I’ve included images that are not in the film and elaborated the narrative about the mixed-race inhabitants of Paris ,” says the 53-year-old artist who established herself as a performance artist with Phantom Lady or Kismet (1998) a photo exhibition documenting her enactment of a masked heroine.

A residency in Paris in 2005 led her to create this body of work, since the specification was that it should deal with the city. The story begins with the protagonist haunted by ghosts in her Paris apartment. They lead her to investigate the past. “I revisit the Catholic and Protestant war in the 16th century when Protestants were forced to convert to Catholicism or migrate to Canada,” says Pushpamala, whose passion lies in intensive research, adding spookily, “King Henry VI brought the war to an end, but he was assassinated for his secular beliefs. That is why this ghost haunts the area.” Pushpamala returns to Delhi in December with “Marvellous Reality”, a group show by Gallery Espace, at the Lalit Kala Akademi