QUESTIONS TO MY ANSWERS
A thought-provoking movement project that aimed to gauge the understand what 'gender' meant at a liberal arts university.
A thought-provoking movement project that aimed to gauge the understand what 'gender' meant at a liberal arts university.
This project was made in collaboration with Mohiniyattam artiste, Malavika Ravi Menon.
'Questions to my Answers' explores the framework of gender through a movement art performance from the perspective of two artistes from two different disciplines.
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1 Our objective
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Through this project, Malavika and I aimed to look at gender and the biases attached to this term and explore the innate nature of multiple genders amongst every individual.
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2 Our Process
While trying to understand gender, Malavika and I were amazed that despite having some glaring similarities in various interests and ideologies, our understanding of gender was quite different. We decided to use our difference in opinions and preferred styles of movement to create a short piece that resonates the idea of gender amongst other students at Ashoka University.
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In order to create this piece, we carried out a series of casual, semi-structured interviews amongst our peer group at Ashoka University, to collect sample data. We asked them two questions -
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1. What is gender to you?
2. Have you faced any distinctions on the basis of your gender (and not sex)?
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Their responses were recorded by us, and further used as inspiration to create movement.
Students were asked about their understanding of gender. The interviews took place in casual setttings, to keep their responses more candid and honest. (Photo courtesy : Tirath Puni)
3 Creating Movement Loops
"Gender can be an emotional turbulence, to be honest."
"Gender, whatever it maybe, cannot work without the other."
"Unfortunately, gender determines who is aggressive and who is submissive."
"Both shaktis lie in each individual.
Like the ardhanarishwara"
"Gender is a spectrum, and we all lie on different points."
"Man or woman, what else?"