About
Tanika is a multimedia artist whose practice explores the emotional negotiations of womanhood through personal narrative and material inquiry.
Working across processes such as handmade paper, printmaking and assemblage, she uses making as a way to reflect, record, and question lived experiences.
At this stage, her work considers the anticipation surrounding arranged marriage, focusing on the subtle and often unspoken pressures to reshape oneself to align with the idea of an 'ideal' woman. Rather than approaching this as a moment of clear acceptance or refusal, Tanika is drawn to the in-between space, where questions linger beneath the surface.
Her practice does not position itself as loud resistance. Instead, it sits quietly with feelings of doubt, hesitation and self-awareness. Through this, Tanika explores how agreement can be layered and how acceptance can exist alongside hesitation. These tensions are not always visible, but they are present in the gestures, materials and structures within her work.
Through a process-led approach, Tanika treats her practice as a form of thinking. Each work becomes part of an ongoing reflection on what it means to prepare, adapt and belong, while still holding space for personal agency.
By focusing on these quieter, internal negotiations, her work offers a thoughtful perspective on identity and how it is shaped by expectation.
Domestic paper vessels made from paper and spices, resisting function while exploring domestic labour, inherited care, and expectations surrounding marriage.
Photo: Peter Quetzal
Meri Haan Hai?
This body of work explores the transitional space of a young Indian woman navigating the process of arranged marriage.
While marriage is often positioned as a celebratory and inevitable milestone, the project examines the emotional complexities that accompany it, including hesitation, negotiation, internal conflict and quiet resistance.
Situated within a liminal space between the present and an anticipated future, the work reflects on the tension between personal agency and social expectations. The movement toward marriage is frequently tied to expectations of care and service, reinforcing traditional ideas of womanhood and domestic responsibility.
Through forms that may appear familiar yet subtly resist their expected roles, the project questions the nature of agreement. What does it mean to say "yes”? Is it consent, compromise, conditioning, duty or choice? Rather than positioning itself as outright rejection, the work explores the fragile and layered nature of acceptance.
Instead of offering resolution, the project remains in suspension, inhabiting the pause between agreement and doubt. It foregrounds the quiet, often unspoken negotiations that occur when personal desire and cultural expectation do not fully align.
Photo: Peter Quetzal
Tong Winona I
Zhen Hong Toh 卓政鋒
Nur Ashserina
Alvin Aw Jia Wei
Shakira Zulaikha Binte Zaibaktian
Zhong Rui
