Gauri Gill - Suman & Kalavati (2010)

Exhibition poster featuring the work, Suman and Kalavati (2010), by Indian master photographer, Gauri Gill. The poster is released in conjunction with Louisiana’s extensive exhibition of more than 200 works that revolve around Gill’s depictions of life in marginalized rural communities, outside of India’s urban centers. Here, it is a portrait of two girls, taken in a photo studio set up in a tent, as part of a workshop Gill held at a festival for girls and women in the desert town of Lunkaransar.

The participants in the workshop helped set the conditions for how they wanted to be portrayed. In subsequent workshops, they learned how to use the camera and create their own images, and one of the participants later opened a photo studio in his village.

From her base in New Delhi, Gauri Gill has attracted attention on the international art scene, not least at documenta in 2017 and the Venice Biennale in 2019, with an original body of work that encompasses several photographic genres – from classic documentary photography to staged tableaux, as well as numerous works created in collaboration with others.

Gauri Gill places the neglected and outsiders of modern India at the center of the picture – and thus in our field of vision. Giving visibility to girls and women, especially from rural areas dominated by patriarchal power structures, is a significant driving force in much of Gill's work.

The same is true of the desire to highlight a diversity of voices and perspectives, which is expressed in experimental collaborations and collective works.

The portrait – based on close relationships with the people and places portrayed – forms the central focal point of her extensive work, which addresses with poetic beauty, empathy, humor and political engagement.