The Reputation, 2024
Information :
Reputation draws from the cultural association of the nose with honor, dignity, and social standing in India. By transforming the nose into a carry bag, the sculpture makes reputation into something physically carried rather than an abstract quality one possesses. The familiar form introduces humor while pointing toward the social weight attached to how an individual is perceived by family and community. Carved in white marble, the object becomes simultaneously precious and burdensome, suggesting that reputation requires continual protection even as we carry it through everyday life. The work asks where personal identity ends and collective judgment begins, and how much of what we carry belongs to us versus what has been placed upon us by others.
