Reflecting on the experiences of survivors of gender-based violence, Gita Chadha said, \u201cThe pain of it is\u2026 it\u2019s very difficult to contain, I think.\u201d Yet the garments appear playful and even joyous at first glance. \u201cAt first sight, they seem more joyous, and when you all of a sudden start reading and maybe take more time with them, you see the deeper and maybe also sometimes more heavier meaning to them,\u201d afra said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
During the #MeToo movement in the Netherlands, afra was a young artist just starting out. When they raised concerns about sharing space with perpetrators, they were often asked to leave instead. In art circles, this was reinforced by the idea of the \u201cgreat creative genius,\u201d afra said. \u201cWhen we were in art school, this behavior of the male genius \u2014 the man that was untamed, wild and violent \u2014 was very much applauded.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
They also pointed out the lack of institutional support. \u201cWithin the arts we didn’t have any policies,\u201d afra said, noting that there were few avenues to report misconduct.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think people underestimate how much it costs to speak out,\u201d afra said about approaching a local newspaper about their experience, around five years ago. They were initially anonymous.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Their first time speaking publicly about their experiences was in Kochi, during the Mild Tooth of Milk exhibition. \u201cI think we also grow as persons when we are ready to be speaking about these things,\u201d they said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dr Chadha observed that \u201cmen have started feeling victimised now,\u201d with some male scholars reportedly refusing female PhD students. \u201cIt’s quite disturbing the way it’s going,\u201d she said. At the same time, both noted that such movements have increased awareness about sexual crimes and afforded more visibility to survivors.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnger can also be something extremely powerful,\u201d afra said. The garments were created as a way to give their anger a physical form, so that they could \u201cbe in charge of when I would wear my anger.\u201d They spoke about the out-of-body experiences during anger, and how the garments translate those feelings into something visible. These garments gave them agency, and the process of making it visual also served to heal them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When asked about the oversized scale of the garments, afra said, \u201cno woman will ever fit into (them).\u201d The exaggerated size reflects how overwhelming emotions can feel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reflecting on the experiences of survivors of gender-based violence, Gita Chadha said, \u201cThe pain of it is\u2026 it\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[199496,199483,199498,199490,199493,442,498,499,500,199486,199500,199488,501,199492,156,199491,199489,199497,199494,199484,199501,199485,111,139,69,199499,199487,199495,199482],"class_list":{"0":"post-384394","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-metoo-art","9":"tag-afra-eisma","10":"tag-art-and-activism","11":"tag-art-and-healing","12":"tag-art-exhibition-bengaluru","13":"tag-arts","14":"tag-arts-and-design","15":"tag-artsanddesign","16":"tag-artsdesign","17":"tag-bengaluru-art-exhibition","18":"tag-bengaluru-events","19":"tag-contemporary-art-india","20":"tag-design","21":"tag-dutch-artist-afra-eisma","22":"tag-entertainment","23":"tag-feminist-art","24":"tag-gendered-violence-art","25":"tag-gita-chadha","26":"tag-installation-art-india","27":"tag-map-bengaluru","28":"tag-map-exhibition","29":"tag-museum-of-art-and-photography","30":"tag-new-zealand","31":"tag-newzealand","32":"tag-nz","33":"tag-textile-art-exhibition","34":"tag-textile-installation","35":"tag-trauma-and-art","36":"tag-warrior-garments"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}