Description
OD Photo Prize 2024 | Shortlisted Artist
Selected by our International Jury from over 1200 submissions
Keerthana Kunnath (b.1995, Kerala) is a visual artist based between India and London. Her practice interweaves analogue photography, field recordings, and printing, constructing an intricate dialogue around identity, sexuality, and womanhood through long-term, introspective projects. Engaging with the visual rhetoric of post-colonial Indian mainstream media, she deconstructs and reimagines narratives, thereby challenging the entrenched societal norms and their impact on South Asian women’s lives. Kunnath’s work, deeply rooted in personal and collective memories, interrogates the intersections of intimacy, queerness, and community. Her artistic process is enriched by active participation in communal activities such as workshops, photowalks, and listening sessions, fostering a collaborative exploration of themes like sexuality, mental health, belonging, dreams, and generational traumas.
Artist Statement | “‘Not What You Saw/Sow’ is an ongoing project that centers on female bodybuilders from South India who defy traditionally entrenched gender roles and beauty norms by embracing physical strength, an attribute historically associated with masculinity. In the cultural landscape from which I originate, muscular women, exuding confidence and strength, are a rarity. While we often encounter women in roles such as doctors, nurses, teachers, or the occasional police officers, the presence of a female bodybuilder is unprecedented.
Recent events at the Paris Olympics have once again highlighted the attention to the complex question of what defines a ‘woman’ in sports, pointing out the ongoing struggle against rigid gender classifications. This issue also resonates deeply in the Indian context, where female athletes have previously faced discrimination and shame due to their ‘masculine’ features. For the female bodybuilders, these challenges are further complicated by factors such as caste, class, and regional differences. The societal pressure to conform to traditional notions of femininity presents a significant hurdle for these women. They are having to regularly work around the complex physical and emotional aspect of building and maintaining their physique while fighting the deeply ingrained expectations of how a ‘woman’ should look like and what they can pursue as a ‘respectable career’.
Some female bodybuilders juggle multiple roles as athletes, mothers, wage earners, teachers and a lot more. Through ‘Not What You Saw/Sow,’ I aim to highlight and push the boundaries of traditional definitions of femininity and masculinity. For decades, mainstream media has predominantly portrayed women as objects of male desire, adhering to a stereotypical ideal of lean, fair-skinned beauty that aligns with Western standards. Here, they disrupt that narrative but in a contemporary manner and force a reconsideration of what it means to be feminine and attractive in South Indian society. Showcasing their experiences with those of their mothers and other female relatives, this project questions the traditional role of men as providers and protectors.
‘Not What You Saw/Sow’ is a tribute to trailblazing women, and a call to rethink and reshape the cultural constructs of gender and beauty. They demonstrate that strength and muscularity can coexist with womanhood, challenging the conventional association of these traits with masculinity.” — Keerthana Kunnath
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