The works of Shantibai and Gangadevi on display are the outcome of their continuous practice after being part of projects such as 'Mode of Parallel Practice :Ways of World Making' and 'The Self' between 1997 - 2005.
 
Shantibai married to a master craftsperson and other women participants had been helpers to male artists in their own families despite undergoing number of training programmes funded by the Government and NGOS. Gangadevi was part of a year long sculpture training project along with Rajkumar Kohram in the early '90,s. at Shilpi Gram studios conceived and built by an internationally known adivasi artist Jairam Baghel from Kondagaon.
 
When invited by 'I F A D' to do 'The Self', with women from Bastar, I placed myself as an artist and a facilitator for the women to open up and recognize the need to turn to one another to strengthen their beliefs and self-esteem. To begin with we envisaged the work process as researching and creating information about adivasi history and the positive aspects of women's position in their own culture and how they situate themselves in contemporary situations within a changing cultural and political climate. Since I had been engaged with other projects with  adivasi artists , supported by 'India Foundation for the Arts' since 1997, the attempt was to continue making space for diversity and for the voices of the marginalized artists to surface. The process helped creating ground for a dialogue between them and myself as well as between all the participants. Exchange of ideas and practical methodologies emphasized the advantages/disadvantages of being in a common studio.
 
Also the interaction with community members helped everyone understand the workings of the social networks, and issues associated with respect for adivasi culture, human dignity and the urgent need to be informed about social rights to enable everyone to make decisions, however basic they may be. It  exposed us, to many unquestioning beliefs held by the adivasis, some of which we may not agree in present times. But the larger sections of adivasi communities draw sustenance and find them relevant. Hence, I find that there has been an integral relationship between art making and other aspects of life - determining artists perspectives.
 
Gangadevi and Shantibai as well, through their drawings and sculptures have been expressing  their perceptions of being women, artists, the people they come in contact with from within and outside the social structure they live in.
           
 
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