The space that we live in, rented or otherwise, is the one that we call home. But isn't that someone's idea of a house with a prototype of usage options? Pune-based artist Rupali Patil, 35, thinks and works around the impact of space on human thinking and mobility in her installation, Dilemma of Other Spaces. It was part of the exhibition, Why Binary Should Have All the Pun, at Pune's TIFA Working Studio where 20 artists investigated fluidity of spaces beyond inflexible binary structures. Patil's work, one-foot high cement sheets depicting the insides of an urban household, is complemented with two silent videos played on mobile phones placed at different corners. She features everyday images in customary spaces — a woman combing her hair, corners of her own home walls, and the moving feet of a festooned domesticated cart horse seen alongside human legs. She feels the familiarity of these spaces can be disturbing, much like the Heterotopia in everyday domestic activity which generates unlikely connotations; it makes her question the relation between 'the self' and 'the space'. Interestingly, Dilemma of Other Spaces is now back at her workshop, where it has triggered new thoughts on space for an upcoming video art presentation in Mumbai.

Patil's work rests on feedback and dialogue, which is why she will be back to TIFA studios next week for the screening (followed by discussion) of the documentary titled Not For Display, which is made by a student of The Film and Television Institute of India. It deals with the embarrassment experienced by women while drying their innerwear on the clothesline. In 2017, Patil dealt with the embarrassment in her work, An Excitement Burning With Cold Flame, which was part of the Pune Biennale and was supposed to be later put on two major hoardings near Sambhaji Park. However, the hoardings were censored by the Pune Municipal Corporation because they featured a bra-panty silhouette. Patil has shared her rage against the municipality in the documentary. "Without even giving me a chance to explain, they declared it 'unpalatable' for public view," she quips, adding that the theme (hidden inners) stays with her and she is happy that a filmmaking student (Saadgi Gupta) is on the same page. "Norms need to be questioned and debated — be them about gender roles or urban space. And the etiquette of drying women's inners has bothered me forever. Why are women told to hide them and from whom? And why don't men feel the same need?"