Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Self Identity in Communities of Marginalized Women in Kolkata, India

Joan Marie Kelly

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Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Self Identity in Communities of Marginalized Women in Kolkata, India

In: Sexuality, Oppression and Human Rights

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Joan Marie Kelly

Joan Marie Kelly
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 47–57

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9781848884243_005

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This is a discussion about the interactions that occurred between female sex workers, their children, and an artist during a series of collaborative social art events in Kolkata, India. The events began when women working in the brothels posed to have their portraits painted by the artist. Over time the women and children also became involved in making art. Unlikely people, positioned well outside of the art world, took action and held dialogues about art and artistic imagery. Perceptual painting becomes a means to cross boundaries and create lines of communication between people who are of different economic classes and cultures. Questions arise as to the convergence of power imbalances. Economic imbalances exist. Can people from different levels of economic strength or from different cultural backgrounds work together and forge relationships? What are the choices? How the women have chosen to be depicted by the artist, and how they choose to represent themselves in a photographic self-portrait is portrayed through their body gesture, face, clothing and environment. The portraits communicate an innate feeling of who the women are, and how they want to be seen. Painting is a viable connective process, unique in its properties of social interaction.

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Sexuality, Oppression and Human Rights

E-Book ISBN:: 9781848884243

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 01 Jan 2015

Subjects
- Human Rights and Humanitarian Law
  - Human Rights
- Social Sciences
  - Comparative Social Sciences

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Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Self Identity in Communities of Marginalized Women in Kolkata, India

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Sexuality, Oppression and Human Rights

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