The brainchild of Bengaluru-based artists’ collective, Sandbox Collective and Goethe-Institut, Gender Bender is here to challenge the binary. After two successful installations in the past few years, the event is back, co-curated by popular feminist magazine, The Ladies Finger. Host to a plethora of art of every kind, previous installations have included puppetry, holographic displays, and films. This year, the exhibition will carry on from August 23 to 27 at Max-Mueller Bhavan.
“The idea is to take the debate further,” shares Nimi Ravindran, co-founder of Sandbox Collective. The inspiration to create this project, Nimi explains, came from “Everything that was happening around us, and gender being discussed. Most of our work, as artists, had something to do with gender. We are just responding to everything that’s happening around us.”
A performance
In a country where homosexuality is criminalised, and members of the transgender community are frequent victims of hate crimes, Gender Bender strives to redefine the way we look at gender and sex. “It’s more than just that, there are two genders, male and female, no; there’s a lot that we don’t understand. One end of the spectrum may be male and the other, female, but there is so much happening in between,” Ravindran adds.
Sahiti Gavarikar, an undergraduate student of journalism who attended Gender Bender 2016 enjoyed zines, video projections and films at the event, and feels that it deeply impacted the way she views gender and sexuality. She says, “I enjoy art that pushes boundaries in both medium and ideas, so Gender Bender is definitely one such where place I can find that.” This year, she looks forward to pieces that are relevant to current international LGBT issues.
“We’re all so bound by gender roles, and the fact that there’s an exhibition questioning them is so relevant and important,” adds Deeksha Verender, an undergraduate psychology student. “It brought out how essential it is to be sensitive and receptive to people’s sexual preferences and identities. Projects like this emphasise on how beautiful a thing the ‘self’ is.”
Gender Bender has sent out a call to artists, for all who wish to be a part of this experience. “If you want to find a better way of asking questions and furthering discussion, by writing stories, painting pictures, or anything else, you should apply to Gender Bender,” states Nimi Ravindran.
— Anoushka Shyam
