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| Sharmila Samant Passing 2001, Video Version 2 |
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| Sharmila Samant Passing 2001, Video Version 2 Sharmila Samant Passing 2001, Video Version 2 In Passing, Passing -as/ by /away/ out/ over...Sharmila Samant uses her ‘Body' as an allegory, contextualised by historical and contemporary societies as a contested site of race, sexuality, gender and artistic expressions. The body is evoked by absence- through fragments (eyes) and colors (bodily fluids). Alluding to the figure as site for political, social, personal and ideological shifts, Sharmila changes the imprinted notions of 'the body' and the construction of identity by questioning the ambiguous identity constructed on difference / semblance. The inclusion of factors such as climate, attitude, colour, hair and other genetic indicators also contribute to the construction of this identity. In Passing, the projecting on the floor where the colors of liquids passing down the drain correspond to colors of skin/bodily fluids expresses the body’s excesses. Situating the scene in a shower stall, a recurrent site of cleansing, violence, sex and voyeurism- popularised through cinema also suggests the presence of the body. However, the artist inverts this relationship by using the plan of a Panopticon; where the absence of the body denies the purpose of the voyeuristic gaze, addressing various aspects of transgression and reflexivity. Sharmila Samant was born in Bombay in 1967, and graduated with a Batchelor of Fine Arts from J.J. School of Fine Arts in 1989. She currently lives and works in Mumbai where she is active on the arts scene as a founder of the Open Circle artist’s initiative. She has been selected for international artist residencies including Gasworks, London in 2001 and the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam 1998-2000. Her installations and video works deal with issues of identity within a global context and have been included in many major international exhibitions including the influential ‘Century City’ at Tate Modern in 2001, Body /City in the House of World Cultures, Berlin and in Pabellon de Cuba in Vedado, Havana, Cuba as part of the Havana Biennale and in ‘ Seed to the Tree’, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter’s Oslo, Norway in 2003. Samant has also been selected by curators Kathryn Standing (Liverpool Biennale, 2002), Roger McDonald (‘Moving Collection’, Tokyo &d New Zealand, 2002) and Amit Mukhopadhaya in (Max Mueller Bhavan, New Delhi, 2003 |
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