It is perhaps difficult to put the vastness of gender issues within a small photo frame . The photography exhibition on at Goethe-Institut manages it, one aspect at a time. The exhibition titled The Gender Issue is a body of photographs from PIX: A Photography Quarterly.
In a few hundred pixels, we see the eternal struggle to exist and expressThirteen artists are represented in the exhibit, representing different facets of what gender could mean.
The series included in the exhibition vary in styles - from abstract digital prints by Amna Iqbal to define acts on the female body, to Gelatin Silver Photograms of herself by Claire Gilliam in order to explore the physical imprint . Among these, the digital photography on archival paper by Tejal Shah may seem contrasting in technique. Shah calls the series Hijra Fantasy , the fantasy represented by the deliberate bright and artificial settings. Indu Antony from Bangalore, makes a resistance to strict societal frameworks possible in images with ManiFest, where women dress in drag,
Although different in technique, as a whole, the various series all contribute to understanding the implications of gender. All of them, a complex idea worth mention that lead to discourse, need investing time and thought in.
Be it Ryan Lobo’s series The ‘Third’ Sex , or Aishwarya Arumbakkam’s Items , these photographs aren’t a forced social message.
The message seeps in through the aesthetic appeal of the images. A depth of gender brought in even to an abstract form or object with a play of light, digital juxtaposition, or even an aid of writing. Lines of poetic text by various writers accompany each series just as in the quarterly, stimulating a thought process, both rational and emotional.
Take more than a few minutes to visit Max Mueller Bhavan for this exhibit, on till September 12.
