Closed Body, a new media art show in Kerala, explores how theatre artists responded to the pandemic

Closed Body: An experiential art show at Durbar Hall Art Centre exploring lockdown life through photography, video, and installations.

Closed Body, an experiential art show on at Durbar Hall Art Centre, which combines photography, video and installations revisits life during lockdown and the pandemic. The space on one side of the art gallery, where the show is mounted, communicates the sense of confinement. Three artists and friends, Sudheer C, K Jayanandan and Nirmmala Neema, got together to photograph 25 women theatre artists as they negotiated their way through the lockdown given that there were few avenues to practise their craft. 

“We went into it with our eyes open — that some would be keen to be part of the project and there would be some others who would be hesitant,” says Sudheer, a photographer. The idea, he adds, occurred to him during lockdown when he wondered about a woman actor (primarily theatre) at home at such a time. “There is no particular reason why a woman actor; it was a thought that struck me and I pursued it.” 

While he is a photographer, Jayanandan is a teacher and writes on art and Neema is a theatre artist. “The project was formed around the psycho-physical reverberations of some artists whose major area of art practice was performance. Accomplished during the uncomfortable days of the pandemic, it inquires into the artistic restrictions as well as possibilities thrown open to these artists forced into the confines of their homes,” they say. 

As you enter the gallery, on the right side, is a video of the process of getting the ‘performance space’ in the homes of the actors ready. That sets the tone for what follows. A mattress suspended mid air has a digital print of a woman, theatre actor Shylaja Jala, curled up in a fetus-like position. 

There are a couple of others of Nangiarkoothu artiste Usha Nangiar mid-performance and model Sheethal Shyam in the room — the former hung on a wall and the other of Sheethal applying makeup is printed on a sheet draped over a box. The exhibit extends to the first floor, with photographs of Athira R, Sajitha Madathil and others.

The photographs capture the many moods of an artist forced to stay indoors, without access to their performance space. These portraits are intimate in the sense that they expose the vulnerability of artists in the ‘constructed, home-made theatrical spaces.’ 

“We were prepared for rejection as well when we visited these artists. Some agreed immediately, there were others who warmed up and got into the creative headspace as we set up the equipment for the shoot. We were able to get 25 different reactions, which we documented as videos and photographs,” Sudheer informs. The backdrop is a black curtain in front of which the actors staged their ‘performance’.