Description
Fortune and Knowledge don’t always go together, for they are wanted so differently. Lakshmi the goddess of fortune, arrives and departs as she likes. Changing lives on a whim, she is more desired than enjoyed. Nervous gods and humans wait anxiously for her to favour them, and she, completely aware of her agency, has a light hearted spirit only the opulent can have.
Saraswati on the other hand, like knowledge, is very hard to come by, let alone acquire. But unlike Lakshmi, when she arrives, she stays. She can’t be spent but can only be earned. Deep and evasive, and solid as a rock, she is also a hidden and lost river.
In unison they give the world texture and colour, filling our universe with everything we so desire.
About the Series:
This artwork is part of the “Sister Misfortune” series, through which the artist, Smruthi Gargi Eswar, narrates lesser-known stories from Indian mythology, while reflecting on the narrative surrounding women in our culture. Various Indian goddesses (devis) are depicted with a refreshing artistic lens.
In India, there is a constant burden on women to be “Devi-like”. Through this series, the artist attempts a reverse deification of the goddesses, making them appear like real women, in a real world. The series is an exploration not just of duality, but of multiplicity. It compels us to question our attitudes - women towards themselves, men towards women. How does the idea of a goddess coexist within every woman? How do we, as a society, so casually dismiss, disrespect, disregard, and defile in our everyday existence, those who we have bedecked with gold and enshrined in a temple?