The recently concluded Truth Dream exhibition by Bengaluru-based Mara celebrates friendship as much as it challenges accepted norms of society
From characters from childhood adventure stories to glamorous stars on the silver screen as adults – most people aspire to be a figment of their imagination.
Truth Dream is an exhibition that captured the imaginations of some members of the transgender community and immortalized them in photographs. The project was conceived by Chandni, co-founder of Payana, a Bengaluru-based NGO that works towards protecting sexual minorities.
“About two months ago, Chandni approached us with the idea of working on a project with 12 of her friends, who were identified as transwomen, transmen and other gender non-conforming individuals. They were all about 50 years old – a rarity within the community they suffer. Chandni wanted to give her a chance to step into the persona of her dreams and she was very clear that this had to be a photoshoot,” says Angarika Ji, curator of Truth Dream, Maar Se Angarika ji, a media and arts organization in Bengaluru.
“When we met him we realized that most of his dreams are related to mythology as well as Kannada and Tamil cinema. These were all linked to childhood desires and fantasies, their experiences of sexual transition, love, betrayal and rejection – a mixture of diverse and complex stories.”
Angarika says that when her team realized the potential of this platform, they quickly started turning the wheels. “We got a costume designer to customize the outfits as their clothes were from the movies of the 60s and 70s. Also, due to the fact that some of them had an operation and we just couldn’t rent the costumes or pick them up off the shelf. We have also called a make-up artist and two photographers.”
Women wanted to model after the Queen of Mysore as well as film stars Sridevi and Jayamalini and old-time classics. The photographs were shot in both color and black and white.
“The color images were shot digitally and black-and-white was shot on film to trace the two separate processes. Black and white images capture their slow transformation – makeup and costumes. Colorful illustrations stand in front of a hand-painted 8×10 background depicting scenes from his dreams. ,
According to Angarika, a group of artists worked on the backdrop and the photo shoot took place over four days in October. In the process of making Truth Dream a reality, Mara created a short book on the life stories of 12 women. “He shared his life experiences with us and we presented them in a document-fiction format. We were very keen not to make this purely a documentary because usually the story around the transgender community is either very celebratory or very patronizing. ,
Titled Kannada, which means mirror in both Kannada and Tamil, the book brings to light the complexity of the community’s identity and experiences, rather than portraying them as victims or symbols.
At the launch of the exhibition at Bangalore International Center on 6 December, 12 subjects of the exhibition presented a dance performance. “We worked with a musician to compose a track where we recorded various elements of his daily life – mourning, celebrations, weddings – and pieced it together as a soundscape. He added more on that. Also performed on some of his favorite film songs.
“The premise of the exhibition is looking at the experiences of beauty, aging and friendship between these people who have seen each other through great ups and downs. It is as much about friendship and solidarity as it is about caste discrimination. , is about challenging notions of gender discrimination, beauty and more.”
Mara hopes that they can travel with the exhibition, displaying it in various cities across the country, and hopefully overseas as well.
Those interested to host the exhibition can mail to angarika@maara.in.
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