Footnotes

Provenance
Property from a private collection, London.

Lipi's sculptural work Untitled (Earring) exemplifies her ongoing exploration of femininity, domesticity, and identity through the meticulous recreation of everyday objects using the unconventional material of stainless steel razor blades. Designed in the iconic shape of a jhumka, a traditional South Asian bell-shaped earring, this work is at once seductive and unsettling. It forms part of Lipi's broader practice in which she constructs intimate and familiar objects, such as bathtubs, undergarments, sewing machines, and beds, entirely out of razor blades, a medium she has adopted as a metaphor for vulnerability, resilience, and social critique.

In Untitled (Earring), the elegant contours of the jhumka are rendered with surprising delicacy despite the sharp and dangerous material. The craftsmanship required to transform a utilitarian, even threatening, object like a razor blade into a symbol of ornamentation reflects both Lipi's technical ingenuity and her conceptual rigor. This contradiction lies at the heart of the work:; the earring is an emblem of beauty, tradition, and femininity, but here it is reconstructed from instruments associated with pain, discipline, and restriction. The result is a powerful commentary on the societal expectations imposed on women, particularly in South Asia, who are often celebrated for their external beauty while being subjected to invisible, or sometimes very visible, forms of control and violence.

Lipi, who was born in Gaibandha, Bangladesh in 1969, draws from personal and political histories, often inspired by the lives of women she grew up around and the broader socio-cultural fabric of her country. The use of the razor blade also stems from her memories of watching her midwife sister use them during home births, a potent symbol of both life-giving and life-threatening moments. In Untitled (Earring), the razor thus becomes a layered metaphor, connoting femininity, danger, labour, and endurance.

Through this work and others in the series, Lipi reinforces her position as one of Bangladesh's most incisive conceptual artists, using form and material not just to provoke, but to sensitively unpack the complexities of gender, tradition, and transformation.