Acts of Appearance offers a large series of photographs by the Indian master photographer, Gauri Gill (b. 1970), who is exhibiting more than 200 works at Louisiana in the spring of 2023. Gauri Gill places the overlooked and outsiders of modern India in the middle of the picture – and thus in our field of vision. Here she has collaborated with Adivasi papier-mâché artists, who have created a series of masks for this particular series by Gill: A series of scenarios and narratives, located in both "reality" and dreamlike states, come together in these thought-provoking photographs.
In recent decades, Gauri Gill has particularly depicted life in marginalized communities in the countryside, outside India's urban centres. The focus is on identity, gender and class hierarchies in Indian society, migration and cultural affiliations, climate change and the imbalance between center and periphery, as well as between capitalism and cultural roots.
Giving visibility to girls and women, particularly from rural areas dominated by patriarchal power structures, is a major driving force in much of Gill's work. The same is the desire to emphasize a diversity of voices and points of view, 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 body of work, which engages with poetic beauty, empathy, humor and political commitment.
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 tableaus, and a long range works, created precisely in collaboration with others.
Dimensions: H: 30.5 x W: 20.5 x D: 1.3 cm
Pages: 188
Language: Hindi and English
Authors: Gauri Gill and Yuvraj Bhagvan Kadu
Publisher: Edition Patrick Frey