Art Is Supposed to Make You Feel Something

Mumbai-based teenage artist on sharing her feminist works on social media

- Moeena Halim

Like most other children, 18-year-old Priyanka Paul took to doodling as soon as she was introduced to a pencil. But it was only after she joined St Xavier’s College, where she studied the humanities, that she brought in feminist thought to her illustrations and poetry. Art, she believes is supposed to make you feel something. “It's supposed to rile you up, it's supposed to make you re-think everything, even the norms of patriarchy, so that's exactly what I aim at doing with my art,” says Paul.

Last year, the artist who goes by the name Art Whoring, attracted a lot of attention through her Goddess series, inspired by Harnidh Kaur's poem 'Pantheon'. It featured various goddesses from different cultures fighting for feminist and sexual liberation. For instance, she portrays Kali in a crop top sticking out her tongue in between two fingers in the shape of a V. The series celebrated bold, uncensored and unabashed women, which is something Paul continues to do through her menstruation series as well.