The figure in this painting by Suchitra Mattai is from a picture of herself the artist found in a family photo album. Elegant, organic forms made from ghungroo bells, embroidery floss and fringe intermingle with ghostly forms and fiery, serpentine flames seemingly conjured by the figure. Mattai recalls a story she was told of being possessed as a child by “jumbles,” or ghosts. She equates the story to her memories of a mental illness. “I wanted to address the fact that people often speak of mental illness (if it doesn’t destroy you) as a superpower,” Mattai says. The superpower of the girl in the painting is her ability to remember her own history with mental illness—a power that is simultaneously empowering and destructive.