പൊന്നുപോലെ വളർത്തിയവളാ  

Cyanotype, Gold leaf, Artists hair, Pen, Brass, Gampi Paper, Found Jewellery Box

12 x 9 inch

2021

പൊന്നുപോലെ വളർത്തിയവളാ  

Ponnu Pole Valarthiyavala – I Brought Her Up Like Gold reflects on the expectations placed upon girl children and the weight of a mother’s hopes shaped by societal norms. The project draws from my mother’s repeated reminder that she “brought me up like gold,” a phrase that carries both tenderness and disappointment: despite her care, I did not fulfil the conventional markers of a “good” daughter—marriage, motherhood, and conformity.

The work consists of cyanotypes of my childhood photographs, overlaid with admonitions familiar to many girls—“girls should sit with their legs closed,” among others. Each image carries the latitude and longitude of the place it was taken, stitched with strands of my hair, marking how these memories and instructions adhere to the body long after childhood ends. Presented inside a jewellery box, the work mimics the preciousness assigned to daughters, while a brass phial evokes the ritualistic, almost prayer-like nature of these moral lessons.

Through personal narrative, Ponnu Pole Valarthiyavala examines how girls are shaped, restrained, and valued within societal expectations, and how these formative messages linger across a lifetime.