Femininity in the 21st century could mean a lot of things. But fundamentally, the thing that remains unchanged about it is its ambiguity. As a benchmark of egalitarianism in the new world, it opens to various interpretations, each starkly different from the other. Aagaaz, a group art exhibition, looks at some such notions of femininity through a gender-neutral lens.
Our dispositions constitute elements of male and female. These are two diametrically opposite but extremely complimenting attributes of human life. Taking this forward, every work in the show dances around this reality in the new world, with the title affirming the same. “Aagaaz means a new start. I believe we’ve entered a time when this truth will be embraced and valued. It’s the way we are engineered to be productive social beings,” says the organiser of the exhibition, Gaurav Chawla of IKA Art, in addition to being a participating artist.
His works are characterised by an abstract topography with elements of figurative forms. With this structural arrangement, he has brought out the thematic significance of masculinity of the former and feminity of the later, to emphasise that only the two come together, can a person be considered whole. “In Hinduism, there is Ardhanarishvara, a combined form of Shiva and Parvati, bringing together half-male and half-female qualities of both in one. This is representative of how even in our history, the idea was revered,” he says.
Aagaaz brings artists Anitta Sethi, Bharti Verma, Dhiren Shasmal, Gaurav Chawla, Manan Negi, Manjusha Athani, Nanda Gupta, and others on his common platform of expression. Some take to figurative work, while others to landscape and abstract.
There is an interactive installation called Shoe Tail, wherein Chawla asked people to send images of strong women from their lives, along with their shoes, narrating stories of bravado, inspiration, perseverance, and resilience. “We always say that the best way to judge a man is by his shoes. Why not women? Why shall we generalise? Through his work we want you to take a look at this installation and create your own stories,” he says.
Don’t forget to put on your thinking cap.