Sultana's Dream, 2018
Portfolio of 27 Linocuts BFK Rives Tan, 280gsm 20 1/8 x 16 1/8 inches (51.1 x 41 cm)
Edition of 35
“This project is inspired by Sultana’s Dream, a 1905 feminist utopian text written by an early Bengali feminist writer and social reformer, Rokeya Sakhhawat Hossain. Educated thanks to the support of her family, Hossian was one of the few elite Bengali women of her generation writing in English. Sultana’s Dream was written over the course of an afternoon. It was first published in the Ladies’ Journal, a women’s literary magazine based in Madras, appearing some 10 years before Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s iconic feminist utopic novel Herland. Sultana’s Dream, though not as widely known, holds a singular position among early feminist science fiction literature. This series of prints draws on Hossain’s vibrant imagery, translating a story written in verse into a visual grammar that connects with problems that shape 21st century life: apocalyptic environmental disaster, the disturbing persistence of gender-based inequality, the power of the wealthy few against the economic struggles of the majority, and ongoing geopolitical conflicts that cause widespread death and suffering. Created in a form that is historically foundational to the idea of public discourse, this series of works comments through form and content on this fraught moment in world history, demonstrating the enduring relevance of feminist utopia imaginaries in offering an invaluable means of envisioning a more just world.” Chitra Ganesh.
Published and produced by Durham Press
#4 City in Broad Daylight When walking I found to my surprise that it was a fine morning. The town was fully awake and the streets alive with bustling crowds. I was feeling very shy, thinking I was walking in the street in broad daylight, but there was not a single man visible. Some of the passers-by made jokes at me. Though I could not understand their language, yet I felt sure they were joking. I asked my friend, 'What do they say?' 'The women say that you look very mannish.' 'Mannish?' said I, 'What do they mean by that?' 'They mean that you are shy and timid like men.' 'Shy and timid like men?' It was really a joke. I became very nervous, when I found that my companion was not Sister Sara, but a stranger. Oh, what a fool had I been to mistake this lady for my dear old friend, Sister Sara. She felt my fingers tremble in her hand, as we were walking hand in hand. 'What is the matter, dear?' she said affectionately. 'I feel somewhat awkward,' I said in a rather apologizing tone, 'as being a purdahnishin woman I am not accustomed to walking about unveiled.'
#13 Baby Queen 'Let me tell you a little of our past history then. Thirty years ago, when our present Queen was thirteen years old, she inherited the throne. She was Queen in name only, the Prime Minister really ruling the country.
#1 The Condition of Womanhood One evening I was lounging in an easy chair in my bedroom and thinking lazily of the condition of Indian womanhood. I am not sure whether I dozed off or not. But, as far as I remember, I was wide awake. I saw the moonlit sky sparkling with thousands of diamond-like stars, very distinctly.
#12 Water Storage 'In the capital, where our Queen lives, there are two universities. One of these invented a wonderful balloon, to which they attached a number of pipes. By means of this captive balloon which they managed to keep afloat above the cloud-land, they could draw as much water from the atmosphere as they pleased. As the water was incessantly being drawn by the university people no cloud gathered and the ingenious Lady Principal stopped rain and storms thereby.'