Bhanwari and Lichhma
2003 - Photography (Photography)
106.68 x 160.02 cm
Gauri Gill
Bhanwari and Lichhma from the Balika Mela series by Gauri Gill explores human expression through the medium of photography, bringing questions of agency, the role of photography, and feminism together through its portraits of adolescent girls from rural Rajasthan, India. Balika Mela is an annual fair for girls aimed at uplifting a population severely maligned in Rajasthan. Having set up a stall in this fair, Gill invited local girls to voluntarily pose for photographs which they were allowed to keep, expressing their performative individuality. Gill also taught photography classes throughout the course of the fair. The photographs naturally draw questions of representation while also taking on a timeless, multi-temporal dimension, in that it was re-iterated by Gill approximately seven years after the initial photos, as she again passed through the same Rajasthani community as part of a later iteration of the series Balika Mela . The serial nature of these photographs is indicative of the fluid, incomplete process of their intended empowerment, organized against the day to day oppression faced by the girls. Bhanwari and Lichhma offers an alternative model to the singular exoticizing model of journalism-driven portraiture. Instead, the photographs visually striking ethnographic qualities bring to the surface performativity and expression as means of foregrounding agency in their representations. Consisting of striking images, full of power and outright disdain for its audience in the girls’ expressions, the series points to an important, inaccessible movement of empowerment, community building, and imagination that refuses conventional visualities of subaltern existence.
Gauri Gill is interested in the social contract of photography. Her photographs propagate expression to subaltern existences within rural Indian states, even as they critically denote a fundamental imbalance in their own existence, at once accredited to Gill as well as the cultural, social, and political statements of the collaborators that she photographs. Her practice operates on a surface level that opens up onto an ephemeral, vital set of relationships, both through and beyond her social engagement with the communities, individuals, and practices that drive her photography to hold much more than what it directly portrays. In doing so, her works inquire about the circulation of expression from the margins of contemporary life, Gill’s work forming an estuary of repressed voices that leaks outward into the discourse of the greater art world. The Western structure of the singular artist as genius disintegrates against these somewhat anonymized, though strident sources. The sense that there is an expanded, unwieldy network of individuals at play throughout her works is present in their sometimes overflowing serial quality: almost all of her series are ongoing, and overlap each other.
Colors:
Other related works, blended automatically
» see more
© » KADIST
Gauri Gill
2015Acts of Appearance is an ongoing series by Gauri Gill consisting of lush, large-scale color portraits of the residents of a village in Maharashtra, in Western India, which is known for making Adivasi masks...
Related works sharing similar palette
» see more
© » BROOKLYN STREET ART
buZ Blurr, One Telling of the “Origin Story” at Straat Museum Amsterdam | Brooklyn Street Art BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY In the shifting culturescapes of urban contemporary art, STRAAT Museum’s latest exhibition, “Moniker: An Origin Story,” emerges as a poignant narrative that bridges the transient heritage of hobo monikers with the vibrant pulse of today’s street art scene...
© » ART21
Press Release: Art21 to Release New Film: “Hannah Levy’s Adaptive Structures” | Art21 Our Series Art in the Twenty-First Century Extended Play New York Close Up Artist to Artist William Kentridge: Anything Is Possible Specials Art21.live An always-on video channel featuring programming hand selected by Art21 Playlists Curated by Art21 staff, with guest contributions from artists, educators, and more Art21 Library Explore over 700 videos from Art21's television and digital series Latest Video 15:03 Add to watchlist Politics of Listening Lawrence Abu Hamdan Extended Play February 7, 2024 Search Searching Art21… Welcome to your watchlist Look for the plus icon next to videos throughout the site to add them here...
© » KADIST
Mary Reid Kelley
2015Kelley’s 2015 portrait of the poet Charles Baudelaire is one of a series of poets, rappers, and other thinkers who have influenced the artist’s ideas about beauty, creativity, and expression...
Other works by: » Gauri Gill
» see more
© » KADIST
Gauri Gill
2015Acts of Appearance is an ongoing series by Gauri Gill consisting of lush, large-scale color portraits of the residents of a village in Maharashtra, in Western India, which is known for making Adivasi masks...
Related artist(s) to: Gauri Gill » Kristan Horton, » Marco Antonio Cruz, » Sarah Anne Johnson, » Anup Mathew Thomas, » Bharat Sikka, » Chino Otsuka, » Edgardo Aragón, » Elizabeth Smith, » Erin Shirreff, » Frank Gehry
» see more
© » KADIST
Edgardo Aragón
2007Efectos de familia (Family Effects, 2007–9) is a series of 13 videos that dramatize an array of abusive events derived from Edgardo Aragón’s family’s history—specifically its involvement with organized crime...
© » KADIST
Edgardo Aragón
2020In the agricultural areas of Mexico, Indigenous people use the mylar magnetic tape unspooled from VHS cassettes as an alternative to the scarecrow—the reflective tape flutters in the wind and does an excellent job scaring birds away from crops...
© » KADIST
Edgardo Aragón
2016Mesoamericana (Economic activities) is part of a larger project titled Mesoamerica: The Hurricane Effect, which includes a video as well as series of hand drawn maps -based on historical cartography- that examine the effects of foreign power in Mexico today...
Related works found in the same semantic group
» see more
© » SLASH PARIS
Gilles Aillaud — Acquisitions récentes — Loevenbruck Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris Login Newsletter Twitter Facebook Gilles Aillaud — Acquisitions récentes — Loevenbruck Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris English Français Home Events Artists Venues Magazine Videos Back Gilles Aillaud — Acquisitions récentes Exhibition Painting Vue de l’exposition Gilles Aillaud...
© » SLASH PARIS
Gilles Aillaud — Animal politique — Centre Georges Pompidou — Exhibition — Slash Paris Login Newsletter Twitter Facebook Gilles Aillaud — Animal politique — Centre Georges Pompidou — Exhibition — Slash Paris English Français Home Events Artists Venues Magazine Videos Back Gilles Aillaud — Animal politique Exhibition Painting Gilles Aillaud, Mangouste, nuit rouge, 1976 Huile sur toile, 97 × 146 cm Collection AdF, courtesy galerie Loevenbruck, Paris © Adagp, Paris, 2023 Gilles Aillaud Animal politique Ends in 3 months: October 4, 2023 → February 26, 2024 Lions, girafes, phoques… Gilles Aillaud, disparu en 2005, a beaucoup peint les animaux, souvent en captivité...
© » THEARTNEWSPER
In pictures: Design Miami makes a stand Art market Museums & heritage Exhibitions Books Podcasts Columns Technology Adventures with Van Gogh Search Search Art Basel in Miami Beach 2023 feature In pictures: Design Miami makes a stand Furniture clad in shingles, a tiger with a ceramic coat and a chair made of chains are some of the highlights of Design Miami 2023 Carlie Porterfield 9 December 2023 Share Visitors to Design Miami at one of the 50-plus stands at this year's edition Photo: Liliana Mora The 19th iteration of Design Miami, the city’s leading design fair, kicked off on Tuesday with more than 50 stands dedicated to furniture, homewares, ceramics and more...