Mitra started The Shell Boy when she chose a film by Tim Burton for the illustration project ” The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy”. In that project, she started to sketch from it, and she was attracted to the story of the boy, she decided to make a collection.
The boy in Tim Burton’s story is a curious boy who was born to his parents by the sea. The boy has a different appearance from others of his age, a boy with a big head in the shape of an oyster. The boy`s parents were embarrassed to have this boy.
They wanted to be able to give birth to a boy like others, they asked the doctor for help to have a baby, and the doctor told them that for this purpose, they should cut off the head of their little oyster boy and the man should eat the oyster. He heard that and he was thinking what is the problem with him that makes him someone who is not enough for his parents…
Tim Burton’s story became an inspiration for this series. The artist is trying to find the value that he is looking for outside. The shell boys in this series are looking for something valuable outside of their bodies that is inside themselves.
Mitra makes her boys happy and simple, the boys who are looking for the pearls inside themselves.
The installation of these statues is usually suspended and surrounded by pearls.