Rendered in Handmade Pigments, Rupy C. Tut's Warriors March Toward Belonging

"The privilege of belonging and being seen as a part of a place, without needing explanations, is not available to my characters, who are finding ways to navigate and battle that out-of-place-ness. If the environment is meant to assuage, then the character's bodysuit is chaotic distress. Similarly, if the bodysuit is meant to pacify the narrative of the character's purpose, then the environment is lurking with dangers and chaotic, unsafe possibilities nearby."

"Yellow lead oxide predominantly signals a place or moment of struggle for my characters, whereas Cinnabar red deepens the earthiness of the conversation in the painting by rooting the story in blood and earth. This meaning-making is a way of indexing my thinking and making as well, where paintings from different times are placed in dialogue through this growing symbolism of color."

Rupy C. Tut explores warriorhood as awakened living through characters experiencing displacement and out-of-place-ness, drawing from her family's migration history and Punjabi heritage. Her work employs metaphorical pairings where environments and figures create emotional contrasts—serene settings paired with chaotic bodysuits, or vice versa. Tut handcrafts her pigments, assigning specific emotions and themes to each color that recur throughout her practice. Yellow lead oxide signals struggle, while Cinnabar red deepens earthiness by rooting narratives in blood and earth. By limiting her palette, she creates a cohesive world where paintings from different periods enter dialogue through evolving yet lineaged symbolism, making color a form of indexing her thinking and artistic development.

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