Artwork on display at Discovery Exhibition on Social Art in Delhi | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Breaking the cycle of gender violence is not easy and women cannot do it alone. While it takes a lot of courage and guts for a victim to come forward with stories of sexual harassment and assault, giving a voice through an artistic frame takes the fight to another level.
Khoj, a Delhi-based non-profit contemporary arts organization, has developed works of women’s daily experiences and their resilience against violence through 14 community-based projects from across India. Following the works is like witnessing events, creating a sense of healing and catharsis, and showing the power of collective action.
Threading the Horizon: Propositions on World Making through Socially Engaged Art Practice, exhibition Pooja Sood, founder member and director of Khoj International Artists Association, brings together socially engaged artists and theater practitioners who have sought to weave together the possibility of a future across social and cultural horizons on their canvases. Formed 25 years ago with the aim of engaging young artists in arts-based community projects, the association aims to create inclusion and participation.
Artwork on display at Discovery Exhibition on Social Art in Delhi | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
The curator of the exhibition, Manjiri Dubey, says that these projects uncover the everyday life of gender-based violence. “It paves a way for alternative framings of coercive experiences through the creative lenses of artists who have put the issue in the public sphere to guide us on how to confront the culture of violence against women.”
For example, the Women of Village Art Project, a group of farmers, housewives, artists and local villagers from Paradsinga in Chhindwara district of Madhya Pradesh, has displayed a collection of clothing made from organic cotton, which is partially grown from their farms. Received from ,
With different views and identities, they have combined their views in a collective space to highlight their concerns of living and working in any average Indian village that suffers from poverty, undergoes migration and is steeped in superstitions Is.
It is the personal interpretation and reinterpretation of clothing projected into a work of art that highlights the stories of violence and unjust practices that women are facing in silence. “Apart from being a platform to express their concerns, it is also about sustainable clothing,” says Manjiri.
Artwork on display at Discovery Exhibition on Social Art in Delhi | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
The situations borne by women, gay and trans-people and the marginalized and their encounters are meaningfully highlighted. Goa-based Xtra Time has used the medium of sports to develop a range of interventions as a means to address gender-based inequalities and lack of opportunities for young girls in schools. Called the Princess Pea, it used football training sessions to start conversations with parents and students to change perceptions about gender roles.
Gender Space, located in Chitpur, one of the oldest neighborhoods of Kolkata, expands the discussion about gender roles by bringing men into the conversation to question notions of patriarchy and masculinity.
home to a diverse set of people and history in settlements One of the largest red-light districts along (slums) railway tracks and close to heritage palatial homes, the artwork examines how different spaces perpetuate shared ideals of masculinity.
Artwork on display at Discovery Exhibition on Social Art in Delhi | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
The Kyun Kyun girl from Rajasthan addressed the possibilities of opening the door to education for young girls by including adolescent girls in two villages in Sawai Madhopur district, where they drop out of school by the 8th grade.
It builds on an exploration of the girls’ connections to their families and larger communities and looks at how urbanization and tourism can spark curiosity and create possibilities for them to connect with their dreams.
Each artwork is an act of restoration and mortification. Pooja says, “Art has intrinsic value to society and the exhibition is an important form of inquiry that provides unique insights and seeks to bring about change through impact.”
at Discovery Studios, the S-17 Window Extension; by 30 December; 11 am to 8 pm