Debjani Bhardwaj: My Journal: The beautiful and the unbeautiful:a juxtaposition

I researched the beautiful yet subversive works of three women artists and thought of "beautiful subversion" as a strategy employed by artists in contemporary art.I would want my work to be aesthetically beautiful in form and yet have a content that is thought provoking,even disturbing.I would want the viewer to be drawn to it and simultaneously repelled by it .They want to look away but are completely hypnotized.

Anila Quayuum Agha (Pakistani artist based in USA) ,winner of the ArtPrize 2015 for her work "Intersections" realized that she could subvert the established order not by making aggressive work, but by reclaiming techniques traditionally ascribed to women. "In a sense, I'm trying to elevate this whole domesticated element of the thread and the needle, which has usually been used to denote women, putting craft into dialogue with fine artThe inspiration for the piece came to Agha on a recent trip to the mosques in Alhambra, Spain. While women were excluded from the mosques and required to pray at home during her upbringing in Pakistan, in Spain she was able to appreciate the beauty of the geometric motifs that decorate the holy temples, as well as think about the mosques as a place of cross-cultural dialogue in Moorish Spain. While the patterning of the piece might be familiar to viewers from Islamic cultures, Agha explained that she took them out of their context to spark a conversation about the ambiguities and contradictions within a multi-cultural exchange.The piece looks like the Kabba in Mecca and the artist wanted to create a sacred space where women could enter.

Anila Quayuum Agha "Intersections" 201

Anila Agha's work "My Forked Tongue" beautiful piece is comprised of English, Hindi and Urdu alphabets strung on metallic threads interspersed by glass beads. The letters are hand cut paper, uniform in size and waxed for luminosity. The letters from each language are hung in layers, arranged equidistantly from each other creating a seductive pattern in space. The shadows on the walls from the alphabets create new intermingled forms. When hung at different distances from the walls the created shadows change in size and scale, creating a dialogue about memory and history. This installation was the artist's way to aid the audience in contemplation of ideas regarding literacy, cultures and class systems. The craft and labour intensive nature of this piece, both in the making and the installing of the work brings additional points to ponder such as craft versus high art, gender roles and the physicality of the human presence.

Anila Quayyum Agha "My Forked Tongue 2014

Like Anila Agha, Hayv Kehraman,is another artist from the Middle East who has migrated to the U.S. Her stunningly beautiful paintings inspired by Japanese prints and Persian miniature painting tradition , highlight troubling and painful socio political issues like the atrocities of war and gender inequalities in her home country , Iraq.

Hayv Kehraman "Playing Cards"

Hayv Kehraman "Heads on Plate"

These works reminded me of Adele's song "Skyfall " so dark but you want to get drowned in it. www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HKoqNJtMTQ .

Kate Macdowell is inspired by human anatomy and biological drawings.She sculpts partially dissected frogs, decaying bodies with exposed skeletons, and viscera invaded by tentacles or ants. But her medium – minimalist, translucent white porcelain – renders her viscerally disturbing subject matter graceful, even elegant. In others, the permanence of the porcelain generates tension with the ephemeral forms it depicts – like insects, flowers and nocturnal creatures.