Comments for Social Art in the Public Realm

Comment on Going Off-Limits - Gender Fear Musings by Karoline H. Larsen

Karoline H. Larsen — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 20:43:03 +0000

Hi Vinayak - very glad to see you wrote a long good text here on the blog. the subject will go on for long. I just hope the young girls are not the only ones to work on the off-limits places. Also men - that usually don’t go there, like you, could go there more frequenting and bring their wifes, sisters, girlfriends… so girls are not the only ones to fight for freedom of expression and freedom of action.
Looking forward to see the project by end of February.
best wishes from Copenhagen, all good luck for Sunday’s Say, I am walk.
Karoline

Comment on Going Off-Limits - Gender Fear Musings by Fear and Gender « Dr. Motion’s Diary

Fear and Gender « Dr. Motion’s Diary — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 05:37:37 +0000

[...] Vinayak suggested that more interventions are needed at these off limit places so that girl don’t fear these places anymore. My take is; girls should start frequenting all such so called No No places so that men become used to seeing them everywhere. Getting used to something acts as a great immune booster. Its like homeopathy treatment. Use the same poison to kill the poison. The above painting was made by me as my interpretation of this concept of Fear and Gender. The painting is semi abstract and metaphorical in nature. Acrylic on Canvas. With a woman’s womb on the left and a man’s penis on the right with fangs all ready to bite. There are hands all over which are like the people of the social realm that we live in. I have used different colours on the hand to show different classes of people. The black outline is a symbol of the strong demarcation that society has, the clear rules of do’s and don’ts. The eyes on the hand all facing the woman are like vigilant moral policing to make sure women don’t deviate from their set path. The snake and the apples are like biblical interpretation of the same idea. Religion also plays its role in making sure woman are made to follow rules. It is blamed on the woman to lure the man with the apple but I feel the apples which I have depicted as breast would have lured men nevertheless because a woman does not need to lure a man with anything she is born with it. To be blamed for every wrong that a man does to her. [...]

Comment on An investigation into public space, body and gender at Shiva-ji Nagaara bus station, carried out the 22nd of January by faiqg

faiqg — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:01:14 +0000

Very interesting indeed.

Few questions,
1. Does the presence of cameras influences the reactions? If so, will you be trying it without them or may be hidden in a car or building.
2. What is the emotion usually when someone is sharing his/her personal thoughts to one of you? Frustration? Contentment?
3. Have you found same faces again on different days? if you went to the same place.
4. What would you reply to, “Why are you fooling around and having fun at the cost of poor people?”

Looking out of the window brings so many thoughts. But the real fun is when you see yourself out there.

Comment on Shiva-ji Nagaraa by liz kueneke

liz kueneke — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 14:07:44 +0000

I really enjoyed your reflections on the intervention in Russell Market. I agree that this mapping project is first and foremost an “excuse” for dialogue about a community, whether people physically mark symbols or not. It is the conversations and debates between different people who might normally never interact which excites me. It was wonderful for you and Ekta to be there on that particular day, since neither my students nor I speak Kannada or Tamil, so we might have lost the opportunity to communicate with so many of the people at the market. I also love how you described to the boys what a map IS………. Looking forward to more posts by you…

Comment on Day 5, Sunday, Jan 18 2009, Transformative Actions, Cubbon Park, Bangalore by elromal

elromal — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 13:06:55 +0000

I came in late and even though I missed most of the intervention that day, what I saw said quite a bit. While the participatory activity was amazing and I believed the space was in some vague sense of the word - ’sanitized’, I am still wondering where the activity goes from here…
I completely understood trying to reclaim the space for sexual minorities, but is cubbon park home to such minorities? It was visually spectacular, and I think an activity like this would surely make more sense the more number of times it was done. This is something I would like to ask the Srishti girls to think about…
They’ve initiated a process, something that needs to be repeated as often as possible and there is a need for it several times more. It shouldn’t be this one lonely act that happens once and is forgotten.
It was amazing, the responses were good, I don’t think we could ask for more, but I would ask anyone who’d take the initiative to continue what we’ve started…
I know the fabric is now missing, and the space is back to how it was, but the activity did make a change. It did make the space more friendly and in that I think the artists involved have made a point.
Looking forward to seeing more of these really interesting interventions, with more participation and yes I’ll be there too
I still need to figure out the mirror activty though