Artist and photographer, Shahid Datawala’s show Datura was pulled down at Mumbai art gallery, Tarq on Thursday.
Full solidarity
Gallerist Hena Kapadia’s press release stated, “Following the opening of the solo exhibition titled Datura , there has been an allegation of misconduct against the artist on social media as part of the #MeToo movement. Tarq was not aware of this allegation before the opening of the exhibition. Tarq has taken the decision to close the exhibition with immediate effect, and Mr. Datawala respects and supports the decision. Everyone at Tarq fully supports the movement and stands in solidarity with the survivors.”
On October 14, in a Facebook (FB) post a woman called out Mr. Datawala on having misbehaved with her.
On Thursday, Mr. Datawala responded with a statement on her FB wall, that is below her update. His response said, “The post devastated me, and it has taken me a few days to put my thoughts together in order to write this response as I want to be as accurate and transparent as possible to show my utmost sensitivity towards what [name withheld] has been through.”
Mr. Datawala’s post further said, “Two years ago, at a house party, in a lapse of judgment, I attempted to playfully bite and lick [name withheld]’s arm. The next day, [name withheld] brought it to my attention and said that she had felt weird and uncomfortable. Since that was definitely not my intention, I was concerned as I would never want to make anybody feel like that. I immediately apologised to her, and we even met later that day again before her flight back to Delhi. For the two years since, I have continued to apologise and as I understood it, she had accepted my apology in principle, while we continued to talk about it. During this period, we have continued to stay friends and been in touch.” Mr. Datawala goes on to state that is a public apology and he supports the #MeToo movement.
More than once
The artist’s ‘apology’ then set off a chain of responses from the survivor and her sibling who pointed out that Mr. Datwala claimed to have called her his goddaughter, having known her family for years. The survivor said, “…you have also managed to conveniently forget that this happened not once, but TWICE. The first time, AFTER I’d told you I’d been sexually assaulted, the second time, the night you begged for forgiveness for the first incident.”
At the time of going to press, Mr. Datawala was yet to get back with a response to the above statement.
