CHENNAI: Beyond the world of censorship that demands one to speak, walk and even live a certain way, is a world of passion which brims with creativity and unexpressed feelings. A mirror at the first edition of the Alt+Art festival held at Fika, Adyar was a portal to this world.
Amid all the art displayed, this mirror was an invitation to introspect, to look into oneself and find art within before appreciating anything else. “There is a lot of censorship related to art and queerness.
Your art can be taken down by social media if it violates certain guidelines. We wanted to create a space that doesn’t have any restrictions as such. People can come freely and express themselves through art. It is an artiste-centric event where artists can meet one another and help each grow their businesses. Art empowers the queer community and we wanted to challenge traditional notions of what is considered ‘good’ or ‘valid’ art,” shared tattoo artiste Krishna, curator of the festival.
The event was organised by Krishna along with team members Jay, Poo, Scott, Prabu, Vicky, Kalai, Jenny, Ashok, Shanoo, Bobby & team, sponsored by Sangya Project, dreaminc., StudioSaaral and Paradye(s.
Perspectives in acts
Hoisting the rainbow flag, with cheers and applause filling the hall, the first edition of the festival kicked off. Inaugurating the event, Revathiamma, a trans community leader and theatre artiste, shared, “We cannot impose rules on art. Through art, the artist and the viewer are discovering themselves. This event is a new experience for me as well. It taught me that art can be anything.”
The staging of her autobiographical play Vellai Mozhi drew the audience into her life and struggles. “This is not only the story of Revathi or a trans woman, instead it is the story of many people I know. I have also portrayed a few excerpts from my life which I haven’t mentioned in my books,” said the artiste.
Spoken word poetry performances by Pragathi Shankar and Rahel delved into the intricacies of feelings. Through their words, the pauses and the tone, the recital became a welcoming call for everyone to sink into one’s own vulnerabilities only to rise again, empathise and empower others. Delivering an on-the-spot story spinning performance was Gurumurthy Rathnam, a city-based stand-up comedian.
From a spontaneous story the stage welcomed the presentation of children’s stories by storyteller and theatre artiste Sukanya Umesh. She wowed the audience with her theatrical flair. Srijith Sundaram, a multi-disciplinary artist and founder of Kattiyakkari theatre group, through his theatre installation interacted with all the art forms displayed. Through their performance titled Queer Kizhavi, artistes Jagan and Dinu uniquely presented various issues of the LGBTQIA+ community.
An ode to South Indian culture through music by the Uru team of Tharun Sekar, Sivasubramanian, Kumar Shaw and Indira Priyadarshini, who performed with yazh, an ancient Tamil string instrument, concluded the performances.
Art as a protest
While performances were happening in the main hall, artistes from all over India whose works were up for sale, interacted with the crowd and shared their stories of finding art. From Pragathi’s posters, a colourful depiction of her emotions, encounters and experiences, Haya’s fine art portraits that redefines beauty, Sanjith’s illustrations that dilutes nature, reality and fantasy to Arsha’s photographs that explore the female psyche and counters the hegemony, the fest paved way for many artists to display their work in front of the Chennai audience for the first time.
For Zi, it was the idea of challenging the male gaze that inspired him . As a writer, poet, performing artiste and photographer, gradually his works branched out to desexualising the human body and spreading body positivity. Pointing to his photographs displayed on the wall, the artiste from Mumbai said, “We are all born naked and instead of sexualising naked bodies, I thought about framing them to portray human emotions. When I started working with artistes, I found out that there are a lot of issues revolving around nude art. My works further extended to the queer community and understood a lot about body issues.”
Narrowing the boundaries of art, the artistes at the festival were building a safe space. The curators hope to conduct the festival with more artistes in the coming years. Through words, brush strokes, photographs and poems, they assure everyone that it is sometimes okay to wear one’s heart on the sleeve for nobody is alone.