“I was something else altogether. There were so many different ways to be beautiful.”
— Michael Cunningham, A Home at the End of the World.
“I feel like my body is in a waiting room.”
— Aimee Herman, Everything Grows
In the crux of identity, lies a fragility which is constantly negotiated as part of temporality. It is contested, fragmented and morphed to accommodate for changes in time, space, early assignment of gender and as a consequence of language. Its fluidity and complexity rendering dictionary definition limp, however does not practically steer it as a formulation of dignity, honour and pride. Social categories tend to be bound up with the idea of self-respect.
The exhibition titled ‘Waiting Room’, consciously grapples with inculcated tendencies, that tend to distort over time. Stringent labels can prove to be parochial, a straight jacket to numb potential. The presentation challenges binaries to welcome the entirety of a spectrum. It looks towards embracing unique peculiarities, keeping in mind shifting identities within various spheres of gender, race, sexuality, time and spatial constructs.
‘Waiting Room’ aims at consciously putting forth work that brawls with societal expectations that tend to distort beings as they assign individuals a stringent label.
The exhibition is curated by Shristi Sainani.
