“Fauna of mirrors is an ancient Chinese myth that speaks of another world that exists behind the mirror,” says renowned sculptor and photo performance artist, Pushpamala N. As Artistic Director of the second edition of Chennai Photo Biennale, Pushpamala regards Fauna of Mirrors less a theme and more a philosophical argument that guides the Biennale. “I am looking at photography as a kind of mirror portal which creates this alternate world, much like a nether world that exists alongside us, full of images which exist like spectres.”
We caught up with Pushpamala, whose passion for this project was unabated on a day riddled with a malfunctioning laptop, an impending site visit and all the inherent chaos of an event of this magnitude—more than 50 artists exhibiting across 11 venues in Chennai.
Saritha Rao (SR): When and how did the curatorial process for the second Chennai Photo Biennale (CPB)begin?
Pushpamala N (PN): The Chennai Photo Biennale Foundation invited me in January 2018. I came down to Chennai in February to meet them, and to have a look at the spaces before I took it on. It's very important that you get along if you have to work with each other so intensely for a year. Also, a year is very little time actually. I formally came on board as Artistic Director in April 2018 and by June-July, I had a list ready. In terms of the curation, I know many of the people in India. Founding Trustee of CPB, Shuchi Kapoor was assisting me on what was happening in Tamil Nadu. Among the international photographers, I know several of them and have exhibited with them through the years. Others, I researched about on the web.
SR: How did you go about selecting the exhibits?
PN: More than the artist, I selected the particular works that I was interested in, and that would work in different ways in terms of what I saw as photographic practice today. We've been discussing about how this world is so image-centric, everything has to do with image, and the photographic image. Although the philosophy is based on Fauna of Mirrors, within that, there are 6 main shows, where works are grouped around a broad theme, but not very literally.
SR: Tell us a little about how the works interact with the spaces they are exhibited in to create an immersive experience for visitors? What are some of the series we can look forward to seeing at the Biennale?
PN: There is this long wall as you enter the space at the Government College of Fine Arts, with a series by Vijay Jodha - photographs of farmers widows holding up the portraits of the husband. The theme is ‘The unbearable lightness of being,' about a kind of dystopia, about the unease or anxiety that's there in the world. Swiss artist Catherine Leutenegger shot ‘Kodak City' in Rochester, New York. Kodak is very central to the history of photography as a company that made all the materials. Bangkok-based artist Manit Sriwanichpoom's Pink Man Series places a man in a pink tuxedo along with his pink shopping cart in incongruous as well as politically significant images. There is also 'Visible Work, Invisible Women,' shot by Indian journalist P. Sainath, which is part of People's Archive of Rural India (PARI) being exhibited at the same venue.
Photographic Record of Human Life
At the Madras Literary Society, there are three artists whose works are all about libraries and books. For instance, there are sculptural photo books by Canadian artist Angela Grauerholz. Liz Fernando is a German-Sri Lankan artist whose installation is based on French philanthropist Albert Kahn's ‘Les Archives de la Planète' (The Archive of the Planet) that commissioned photographers in 1909, to travel around the world to create the first colour photographic record of human life on Earth. Indonesian artist, Putu Sayoga has documented the story of a horse caretaker who has a mobile library for children in a remote village in Indonesia.
The Cholamandal Artists' Village has two small galleries with solo shows by Munem Wasif (Bangladesh) and Kader Attiya (France). Munem Wasif's series of very minimal landscapes on the India-Pakistan border is called ‘The Undefined Territory'. They light grey images that contrast with Kader Attia's series that projects striking images side by side, for instance, one part is about African masks, and the other is about World War 1 soldiers who got injured in battle whose faces were stitched up in such a crude way that they resemble African masks.
Animal Kingdom
At the Government Museum's Centenary Hall in Egmore, we have this video installation called The Golden Feral Trail by Archana Hande that is projected on the ground. At the same venue, there are photo montages by Manjunath Kamath, called ‘Why look at animals?' Both of them have used animals, and at one level, it is also a tongue-in-cheek commentary on how popular photography is about wildlife photography.
Pushpamala says, “It's a varied sort of presentation of what is happening in photography, and how people are handling photography today. So in that sense it's actually a little different from photo festivals, it's more like an art festival or an art biennale because there are a lot of installations, some videos and even the works that are on the wall, are installed in a particular way.”
Apart from these artists, the Chennai Photo Biennale will also feature the works of renowned artists like Dayanita Singh, Vivan Sundaram, P. Sainath and Ram Rahman. In addition, four stations of the local Mass Rapid Transport System (MRTS) will play host to works by students of NIFT Chennai and Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology. There will also be a conference, artists' talks, workshops, and screenings of films on photography.
The Chennai Photo Biennale is on between February 22, 2019 until March 24 2019. The venues and artists are listed here.
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