Drawing Room: Why Gauri Gill’s masked portraits excite Mira F Malhotra
Gauri Gill’s portraits showcase ordinary folks, doing ordinary things, but wearing extraordinary masks. See why the quirky series is more than what meets the eye
Mira F Malhotra, 40, is a visual artist and illustrator from Mumbai and founder and creative director of Studio Kohl. Her quirky, brightly coloured illustrations cover feminist themes, pop culture and characters in playful avatars.
I’m fascinated with Gauri Gill’s photographic series, Acts of Appearance. The images capture regular people in everyday acts – sitting at a dining table, teaching, minding a roadside shop, chopping vegetables, playing carrom and more. However, their faces are covered with newly-commissioned papier-mache masks made by artists from Jawhar district in Maharashtra, who specialise in the making of Bohada masks.
Despite being positioned in mundane, ordinary backdrops, these photographs have an otherworldly quality about them. Gauri Gill tampers with the way our brain recognises human beings. The proportions of the heads are exaggerated. Bohada masks typically depict gods or deities. Here, Gill uses new masks, made by these mask-makers, which have a mix of human or humanoid characteristics. People could be wearing the heads of animals, but the body is human. In some cases, they wear human heads or object masks. There is even a mask of a mobile phone! The result is humorous and surprising.
It’s not a series that takes itself too seriously, even though Gauri Gill is a serious photographer. It is complex, but it is also playful and childlike. I have never seen anything like it, not even in the works of artists abroad. Of course, the masks are made by traditional experts, so it isn’t only Gauri Gill’s prowess as a photographer that is at play here. It’s a collaboration, but it’s so fresh and new.
I’m interested in character design. It’s one of my favourite forms of illustration. Putting life into a drawing is a like an act of God. You are creating something of your own. The idea of creating things that may not necessarily be human but seem to have life imbued in them, really excites me. I appreciate that the artist made this series by using a skill which is inherent among a community that lives on the edge of Mumbai. Yet, she has transformed their craft.
Cartoons have had a heavy influence on my work. I grew up in Saudi Arabia and a lot of our entertainment came from watching cartoons on TV. I came across Gauri Gill’s series five or six years ago and was fascinated with it. There is something very magical, very childlike and very beautiful about these photos. It feels like there is a mix of two kinds of worlds here – a cartoon and a real world, which is super cool.
That is one of the reasons the work inspires me. The other is viewing it from the lens of creating something contemporary and modern, defying stereotypes of what Indian art is perceived to be. Gauri Gill’s work feels very authentic to the process, which is something that others can’t really imitate. Her approach itself is so unique. It is wonderful to be able to create something new and own it. The photos have a very strong visual lens, and I love the fact that she makes these folk-art practices feel very contemporary and interesting by adding a layer of photography on top of them.
Drawing Room is a fortnightly series that gets Indian artists to share their favourite work and what makes it so special. The views expressed by the artist are personal.
From HT Brunch, May 04, 2024
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