दुपटे (dupate) -a baby quilt, Hand-quilted layers of fabric, threads, fabric color on a light box, 80 x 80 cm
दुपटे (dupate) means a baby quilt. During my community art project 'Quilt Culture' where we were making traditional Indian hand stitched baby quilts. I was having a casual discussion about siblings with fellow quilter women. She told about her six dead born sisters and the practice of female feticide in her neighborhood. Shaken to the core, I asked her why isn’t she blaming her parents for it.. “How could I complain, when I am alive? Six of my sisters didn’t make it out of the womb” she said it and continue making baby quilt.. दुपटे
The chills ran through my spine when the further research revealed the general estimates for female feticide more than 10 million female fetuses may have been illegally aborted in India since 1990s, and 500,000 girls were being lost annually due to female feticide. I quilted दुपटे (the baby quilt) by stitching together the layers of recycled fabrics, where each layer contributes to the larger narrative. The quilt is installed on the light box used for x-ray illuminator to symbolize the sex determination technology which accelerated female feticide in 1990s in India. The illuminator also reveals the composition of layers in this work.
The chills ran through my spine when the further research revealed the general estimates for female feticide more than 10 million female fetuses may have been illegally aborted in India since 1990s, and 500,000 girls were being lost annually due to female feticide. I quilted दुपटे (the baby quilt) by stitching together the layers of recycled fabrics, where each layer contributes to the larger narrative. The quilt is installed on the light box used for x-ray illuminator to symbolize the sex determination technology which accelerated female feticide in 1990s in India. The illuminator also reveals the composition of layers in this work.