Untitled (9) from the series Acts of Appearance, 2015-ongoing
Archival pigment print
60 x 40 in
152.4 x 101.6 cm
152.4 x 101.6 cm
Edition of 7 plus 1 artist's proof
$ 20,000.00
Further images
In 2015, Gill began collaborating with papier-mâché artists of the Kokna and Warli tribes in Maharashtra, renowned for their sacred masks. In this series “Acts of Appearance”, she invited her...
In 2015, Gill began collaborating with papier-mâché artists of the Kokna and Warli tribes in Maharashtra, renowned for their sacred masks. In this series “Acts of Appearance”, she invited her collaborators to go beyond the confines of their traditional mask making and develop a new set of forms. Through these vibrant color photographs, Gill tells fictional stories improvised with her collaborator-subjects as they engage in everyday village activities while inhabiting new masks, recalling animals, humans and revered objects that they made expressly for this body of work. The resulting images vacillate between reality and otherworldliness, unfolding in a range of symbolic and sometimes playful scenarios all situated within the backdrop of the surrounding village.
"Jawhar has one of the highest rates of malnutrition in the country, as well as infant mortality. There’s a huge water crisis and very little food – what they do have is very low quality. We heard a new health centre had opened nearby, so we went along to do a shoot one lunchtime, about 14 of us, all holding these masks. It was a working environment, so we had to be sensitive. The furniture still had its protective wrapping on, it was that new.
For this shot, we decided to portray an old lady being tended by a nurse. Then somebody suggested there should be a rat. Rats are common in hospitals across India, not just in rural areas. But this wasn’t about making a comment about hygiene. As you can see, the rat is the most concerned character in the shot. He’s really watching over the woman, as a friend.
The actors would all wear their own clothes, although sometimes they’d switch them around if we felt a character needed something different. But apart from the masks, nothing was fabricated for the shoots. It’s all “real”. That said, there are so many potential versions of any event I’ve ever depicted. This shot is just one idiosyncratic interpretation of that particular moment: the midday sunlight, the wind suddenly lifting the pages of the calendar, the way the rat has one toe curling up." - Excerpted from Interview by Dale Berning Sawa, "Gauri Gill's best photograph: a rat nursing an elderly woman", The Guardian, January 31, 2019.
"Jawhar has one of the highest rates of malnutrition in the country, as well as infant mortality. There’s a huge water crisis and very little food – what they do have is very low quality. We heard a new health centre had opened nearby, so we went along to do a shoot one lunchtime, about 14 of us, all holding these masks. It was a working environment, so we had to be sensitive. The furniture still had its protective wrapping on, it was that new.
For this shot, we decided to portray an old lady being tended by a nurse. Then somebody suggested there should be a rat. Rats are common in hospitals across India, not just in rural areas. But this wasn’t about making a comment about hygiene. As you can see, the rat is the most concerned character in the shot. He’s really watching over the woman, as a friend.
The actors would all wear their own clothes, although sometimes they’d switch them around if we felt a character needed something different. But apart from the masks, nothing was fabricated for the shoots. It’s all “real”. That said, there are so many potential versions of any event I’ve ever depicted. This shot is just one idiosyncratic interpretation of that particular moment: the midday sunlight, the wind suddenly lifting the pages of the calendar, the way the rat has one toe curling up." - Excerpted from Interview by Dale Berning Sawa, "Gauri Gill's best photograph: a rat nursing an elderly woman", The Guardian, January 31, 2019.