Performance

The ‘Filmy’ Body: Understanding pleasure and dance in public space
Still from a video with Urmila Matondkar.
July 1, 2015
The ‘Filmy’ Body: Understanding pleasure and dance in public space
Brushstrokes: #100DaysofLaundry
Illustration of a naked woman in a bathtub, her menstrual blood visible in the water she's taking a bath in

But what about the “moments we don’t Instagram”? What about the uglier parts of our physical lived realities? What about the parts of our body, our identities, our sexuality we don’t perform on social media, but are still an intrinsic part of who we are?

By Curated Content
September 4, 2018
Brushstrokes: #100DaysofLaundry
Nanette: Of Universality and Difference
Black and white picture of stand-up comic Hannah Gadsby. She has short hair and wears dark glasses.

In Nanette, Hannah Gadsby’s hour-long Netflix special that transcends the very notions of stand-up comedy, forces of reclamation, protest, and rage culminate to form a darkly hilarious but heartbreaking diatribe against patriarchy, heteronormativity, violence and marginalisation.

By Anonymous
September 4, 2018
Nanette: Of Universality and Difference
How to Have Good Sex?
Against a yellow background, illustration of a silhouette of "Superman", with a red flowing cape

During my interaction with students as a part of sexuality education classes in schools, one frequently asked question by boys is,“How to charm a girl?”

By Ramya Anand
September 4, 2018
How to Have Good Sex?
BDSM Play – Performance and Beyond
Picture of a black lacy mask with a black string portruding from it

Just like sex can be happy, sad, awkward, angry and so many other emotions, rather than the mere act of pounding, so is BDSM.

By Asmi
September 4, 2018
BDSM Play – Performance and Beyond
I’m a Fennel for Now
The queer muslim experience, symbolised by a picture of three pieces of fennel, kept one beside each other. they have a light green bulbous body and dark green leaves emerging from the stem.

“I’m afraid because I bring to bed more than just one soul of a scared conflicted boy. I’m bringing to bed a whole army that not only runs the streets within me but also spills out over my body and the body of the boy next to me.”

By Abdullah Erikat
September 4, 2018
I’m a Fennel for Now
Bodies in Motion: Dance Therapy as Mode of Healing and Empowerment
silhuoette of a female figure in a dancing pose

The dance therapy project therefore squarely locates itself as a supplement to economic skill building and psychological counselling, in developing a holistic sense of self among the women beneficiaries of the project.

By Raili Roy
September 4, 2018
Bodies in Motion: Dance Therapy as Mode of Healing and Empowerment
Prescriptions of Proper

In a world of prescriptions of performance and perfection, there isn’t truly that much space built in to risk non-performance, not being perfect, or to risk not fitting the prescription.

By Shikha Aleya
September 4, 2018
Prescriptions of Proper
Issue in Focus: Performance and Sexuality
Picture of a classical dance performer, face painted in yellow and black

To think of sexuality as performative disrupts the need for stable categories and identities, instead suggesting that we all reinforce and disrupt normative formations as we attempt to inhabit the world in messy ways.

By Sneha Krishnan
September 4, 2018
Issue in Focus: Performance and Sexuality
The Labor of Expressing Femininity as a Disabled Woman
A series of feminine body hair removal products - razors, epilators and so on - arranged on a pink coloured table

The nature of the labor that goes into performing femininity is that it’s invisible. Or at least it’s supposed to be. As a culture, we expect women to look glossy and shimmery and smooth. We don’t want to know about the time and money that goes into this presentation.

By Curated Content
September 17, 2018
The Labor of Expressing Femininity as a Disabled Woman
‘Don’t They Realise We are Human?’: The Uneasy Alliance Between Fashion and Feminism
Picture of author Manjima Bhattacharya. She has short white-and-grey hair and is wearing dark thick-rimmed glasses

“Historically, feminism and fashion have been pitted against one another,” writes Manjima Bhattacharjya in her book, Mannequin. It’s a dilemma the fashion industry has struggled with for decades – being perceived as flippant, or existing in a vacuum”

By Curated Content
September 17, 2018
‘Don’t They Realise We are Human?’: The Uneasy Alliance Between Fashion and Feminism
Outlander: A Review
Picture of a man and woman, in period costume, kissing.

Time and time again, Galbaldon asks us, through the character of Claire, to remember that we are travelers, we move and are moved by the interactions and environments around us.

By Dana Burton
September 17, 2018
Outlander: A Review
Editorial: Performance and Sexuality
Russian dolls

We are many selves. Or rather, like a series of Russian Matryoshka dolls nested one within the other, we perform…

By TARSHI
September 17, 2018
Editorial: Performance and Sexuality
Probing the Screen: Pleasure in the Virtual World

The virtual world allows me to challenge the hold of patriarchy on my ‘effeminate’ body; in a sense, it allows me to evade the policing of desire that my body shares with another, its flows and slippages, the messy and the unkempt.

By Neel
August 14, 2020
Probing the Screen: Pleasure in the Virtual World
Please Touch: Tactile Art as a Medium of Exploration

Most of us, during childhood, internalised the lesson that sex or pleasure is ‘dirty’ and ‘bad’. Artists around the world are increasingly using ‘tactile art’ to challenge the shame and embarrassment that people feel when they look at their bodies.

By Isha Vajpeyi
August 14, 2020
Please Touch: Tactile Art as a Medium of Exploration
1 2