Baaraan Ijlal’s work always has to do with gender and queerness in some way, and gives us great pleasure to introduce her to the Gaysi audience.
Q. Let’s start with why you chose to be a part of Resist?
I find inspiration in the community, and prefer working amid its concerns than in isolation with it. Resist attempts to highlight the dialogue between the arts and the community; which is my work ethic too.
Q. What is the subject of your works? And how did choose that subject?
My work is about desire, multiple identities within ourselves, the violence that confronts us in terms of norms and disparities. It is also about the care and pain we take to live through all the turbulence as if nothing has happened. This inspires my work.
Q.What is it supposed to invoke in the audience, and what do you want them to take back from this?
I want my audience to take back all kinds of possibilities from my work. I want to discover something new, each time I see my own work and want the audience too to be a part of a certain infinity. Am i able to do that, is something I ask myself each time I paint.
Q. Resist is meant to be an art protest against gender inequality and violence, how do you think art educates/informs society?
A canvas is the freest space for an artist; like a blank page is the most empowering for a writer. To use it boldly, truly and emotionally is the creator’s prerogative, her search for the self. It is the society that informs the artist, it informs me. Art can transform the point of view of a person in a way that is more effective than dialogue or debate. Society can only benefit from artistic expression.
Q. Do you think that Indian society is ready for the depiction of homosexuality, and more importantly transgender issues, through art? Do you find the audience to be generally accepting?
There is never a ripe time for anything to happen. ‘Society’ is ever ready. Things don’t happen because somebody is not making it happen. We have to make things happen, Always; in the past, Today, and in the future. Keeping some things visible and some others invisible is actually something of our own doing. From the community to the level of individual, we are the doers. We are naysayers.
[Resist : Opening on 17 May at 7:30 p.m. with performances starting at 9:30 p.m. at Gallery Beyond, Mumbai.]
