Asma Kazmi (far left) and the Birthday Girl
Director Juan William Chávez was invited to India by artist Asma Kazmi, who has been working in Delhi for the summer on her recent project involving the Hijra community. Kazmi recently exhibited her work at Boots in the spring of 2009 in her exhibition titled, Relation-Chute II: Meditation on My Slaughter.
In her new project, Kazmi has been working with Hijras, a transgender community who see themselves as belonging to a third sex, often dress as women, and live in the margins of society. For more information about Hijras, go to this Wiki link.
Juan got a brief glimpse into the complex life of the Hijra community when he was invited to a birthday party at their hostel, located in a neighborhood of Old Delhi. At this celebration, 30 hijras were dressed for the occasion: full makeup on, hair done, and jewelry including bright colorful glass bangles, gold ornate earrings, and ruby filled toe rings. The birthday party started off with dancing in the street to the beat of two drummers. A huge crowd of onlooking neighbors quickly formed. When the dancing came to an end, the party moved indoors to the rooftop where puri and chickpea lentil curry was prepared on the spot by two men.
Cutting the Cake
Dinner was delicious and ended with a huge birthday cake! It was an amazing event; Juan was appreciative of the hospitality and generosity of the hijras, an underground society weary of strangers because of public discrimination and prejudice. It was definitely the highlight of the trip…and quite the extravaganza!!
Relation-Chute: Meditations on My Slaughter at Boots Contemporary Art Space will focus on collapsing the distance that the Relation-Chute website assumes between a viewer and an image. The exhibit is a manifold encounter, realized through bringing a community of voices under one roof to participate in an exchange which will happen in words and beyond words, through shared inhabited time and space.