Medium: Water-colour paintings, 20 | Dimensions: 8.3 x 11.7 and 5.8 x 8.3 in. | Year: 2017
In this project, I worked around matrimonial sites and columns to explore how women and men present themselves in online spaces. This work looks at different kinds of people who attribute qualities to themselves. Potential Life-partner is a series of paintings that are replications of matrimonial-profile photographs uploaded on the internet. These profiles were selected from two of the most popular Indian matrimonial websites, BharatMatrimony.com and Jeevansaathi.com. The profiles are not only created by people looking for an arranged marriage but also by their family members who operate the account on their behalf.
I created two profiles - one for my father and one for myself - to look for prospective brides and grooms. I filtered them based on some normative characteristics, such as mother tongue, caste, skin complexion, income, and so on. The websites then display recommendations of ‘suitable matches' based on the categories. This process existed before the internet age and continues as it is accepted now on digital platforms. The algorithms created for such websites use the above parameters as variables for people to pass through a ‘codified society’. Some remain rejected from the loop if they fail to perform normative gender roles. Self-presentation becomes a huge part of cracking the ‘algorithm’ for desired outcomes.
