Tejal Shah
dal 24/5/2006 al 28/6/2006
Segnalato da
24/5/2006
Tejal Shah
Thomas Erben Gallery, New York
One of the most significant Indian artists of her generation, she works in video, photography, and performance. She presents a new video installation in which the pliable language of gender is explored in a physical, concrete manner.
What are You?
An event of the Asian Contemporary Art Week, <http://www.acaw.net>www.acaw.net
ACAW Video Artist: So, Man Yee Stella
One of the most significant Indian artists of her generation, Tejal
Shah (b. 1979) works in video, photography, and performance. For her
first U.S. solo exhibition, she presents a new video installation in
which the pliable language of gender is explored in a physical,
concrete manner not only by her chosen subjects but also through the
medium itself. Moving casually between staged performances,
documentary, music video and appropriation, Shah's "What are You?"
creates a direct relationship to her subjects' manipulations of their
own gender.
Rapidly paced shots of beach breakers and close ups of skin establish
the space of the video-film both geographically - Bombay, and
conceptually - the body. Next, our subjects appear: full length
figures against a black void of non-association. These portraits,
removed from any context, direct our attention to the physicality of
several members of the hijra (transgender) community. There is
something unsettling in this direct confrontation. The women, who are
staring at us, begin a recitation of their constitutionally
guaranteed rights. Their self-conscious performativity falls with a
burst of laughter irritating our reading of their relationship to the
recited text.
Interspersed with '70s, governmentally produced, medical clips and
industrial footage about 'man and his complicated machines', the film
moves into the documentation of one individual's experience of the
gender reassignment process. The split screen presents to us
simultaneously the content and beautiful result contrasted with the
doctor's uneasy, clinical account of the transformation. The film
concludes with slow dancing bodies moving with colorful, neo-op,
go-go patterns inviting us to the life embracing vitality of this
community.
As a result of her ongoing involvement, Shah, for this project, spent
time with Hijra sex-workers in the red-light district of Bombay. The
installation includes four beds, which are based on those found in
local brothels. Arranged barrack style and painted in a distressed
mauve finish she creates an environment, which fictionalizes a
reality in stark contrast to the realized fiction of the film.
Ultimately, gender, reality and fiction remain slippery concepts
which, due to their interdependence, refuse to function traditionally
in the encapsulating visual and theoretical space the artist has
created.
Shah grew up in central India, eventually moving to Bombay in 1995.
She completed her BA in photography in Australia and went on to the
Art Institute of Chicago as a Visiting Scholar.
Opening: Thursday, May 25, 6 - 8:30
Thomas Erben Gallery
516 West 20th Street 212 - New York
Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 10-6