Claiming the Spotlight

“Since 2001 when boxing was first introduced to India, women boxers have given the country many world champions, and every year they win an armful of medals,” reads a display board of the exhibition titled ‘Fellowship of the Ring’ in the subway near Regal Cinema. Delhi-based Mohsin has lent her lens to such “unusual women in an unusual sport where the battle line (between the sexes) is clearly drawn”. Black and white images reflect the struggle of these women and girls who must fight twice as hard — against opponents within the ring and prejudices outside it.

In an adjacent underground crossing, are women dressed in pink saris, fighting a similar oppression but bamboo sticks are their weapon of choice. The Gulabi Gang, documented by French photographer Viviane Dalles, is a women’s movement begun in 2006 by Sampat Pal Devi in the Banda District of Uttar Pradesh to combat domestic violence and desertion. Says Dalles, “It is important to talk about Sampat and Gulabi Gang. Their story attracted media attention internationally. I went there on an assignment for the French paper Le Monde.
I reckon that helped to get the authorities interested in her actions.”
Dalles’s frames burst with bright pinks, as though in celebration when indeed for these women, the pink is the colour of revolution.

Bright shades fade into neutrals, and costumes mimic the absurd and the edgy in photographer Rohit Chawla’s staged images in the series ‘World of Wearable Art’, mounted atop buildings in CP’s Inner Circle. “Fed up with the contradiction between fashion that is staged and what people really wear, I chose to explore this project. It was a purely artistic pursuit,” says Chawla. Open space and breathtaking landscapes enhance the other-worldliness of what can be best described as installations on the human body. “Capturing a moment is not enough anymore, it is all about creating one,” he says.

These works are on display till March 31 at Connaught Place
(The reporter is a student of EXIMS)

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