artist : designer
about
©bhavriyat 2024
All rights reserved
brown foreground
Developed at
Design Academy Eindhoven
Design Academy Eindhoven
Image MakingArtistic Research
Year: 2022-23
Camera and Exhibition are primary manifestations of the Imperial gaze. These colonial tools have participated in asserting domination and subjugation towards colonised communities. The project ‘White Background, Brown Foreground’ questions, ‘Does colonial imagery perpetuate the messages of othering and intercultural hierarchy to the audiences of the 21st century?’
Visual literacy leaves a stronger imprint than textual. In a visually driven society, Image is king. The artist confronts such a dilemma by intervening in the colonial era imagery with the methodology of hiding. The absence creates a space for attention.
Illustrations from ‘Dickinson’s Comprehensive Pictures of the Great Exhibition of 1851’ are intervened by painting the background in white. The material culture of colonised communities is staged for Western audiences under the agency of the coloniser. The hand painted white background resembles the white cube aesthetics standardised within exhibiting practices, foretelling the future of these objects.
On the other hand, colonial-era photography is intervened by covering the human subject with white fabrics. The decontextualising gaze of the camera is highlighted by using hiding as a tool. Human bodies separated from their original contexts are staged in front of studio backgrounds and arranged as objects. The white fabric attempts to block the imperial gaze embedded in these images.