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IN THE BODY IN PAIN, the essayist Elaine Scarry writes that the articulation of bodily experiences to another person is always fallible, because “the events happening within the interior of that person’s body may seem to have the remote character of some deep subterranean fact, belonging to an invisible geography.” Vasudhaa Narayanan’s photographic work spoiled fruit attempts to contend with this invisible geography, through an archive of portraits of women’s bodies.
There are several themes that run through the work: relationships with the body, violence, desire, gender roles, experiences with healthcare, surveillance, caste and touch. Her aim, she said, was to explore the “secret inner life” of those who participated in the project, which emerged from extended conversations with over thirty people she interviewed in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Delhi and Bengaluru.
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