Now Reading: Art imagines India’s queer unions after Supreme Court verdict
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Art imagines India’s queer unions after Supreme Court verdict
Indian artists are imagining gay couples in wedding scenes and family life after the Supreme Court declined same-sex marriage on October 17, 2023. Aksh Diwan Garg's Delhi show, 'Wedding Season: Aap Kiski…
The Story in Brief
Indian artists are imagining gay couples in wedding scenes and family life after the Supreme Court declined same-sex marriage on October 17, 2023. Aksh Diwan Garg's Delhi show, 'Wedding Season: Aap Kiski Taraf Se?', paints wedding guests but leaves out the couple, showing a lonely man at the periphery. Shakibul Islam's 'Family' depicts two fathers with their child, while children's books like 'Ritu Weds Chandni' and 'Reva and Prisha' celebrate lesbian couples. Curator Mihir Thakkar says art can offer an emotional experience where logical arguments fail.
The artists defy the notion that same-sex love is Western. Islam's painting at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale showed a Hindu-Muslim gay couple, challenging both homophobia and religious prejudice. Ameya Narvankar's book uses the familiar backdrop of an Indian wedding to normalise same-sex unions. Lavanya Karthik illustrates lesbians in domestic scenes, inspired by Mahajan's 'life-affirming' prose.
The Indian Opinion
The art world's embrace of same-sex couples is welcome, but law and society remain out of step. Artists like Aksh Diwan Garg and Shakibul Islam create images of joy and exclusion, hoping to nudge conservative minds. This strategy avoids debate, but does it change hearts? A test to watch: will any gallery in a tier-2 city host such shows without protest? That number will tell us how much the conversation has truly broadened.
Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
