Pardah
2020
I am instigated by the obvious walls and the limitations we have to abide by for social distancing. The volatile lines of separation: the visible and the invisible that mirror the existence of a person are ironic. It's like ‘I exist’ within your vicinity but am unapproachable. Evident but imperceptible, sarcastically justifying the statement ‘As close as it can get’
These lines and distances are no different to the veil or the purdah women have been asked to use since the ancient times. Pardah or purdah (from Persian: پرده, meaning "curtain") is a religious and social practice of female seclusion prevalent among some Muslim and Hindu communities. It takes two forms: physical segregation of the sexes and the requirement that women cover their bodies so as to cover their skin and conceal their form.
5 Biodegradable plastic sheets ( 10 x 12ft )installed in the common area of the building.
By restricting mobility, Pardah enforces a social and physical isolation of women. Limits her ability to participate in gainful employment & to economic independence that brings her to a position of vulnerability/domestic violence. Doesn't it seem like an extract from the recent times, the suffering & the cap on liberty in coherence? In pandemic, many voices are trapped & supposedly succumb to moral & ethical responsibilities. People are separated by pellucid glasses - tough, but permeable through visual perception. Thus, the unconstrained imagination provokes unrealistic expectations of materialising it,that leads to dissatisfaction.
Mary looking through the acrylic glass window.
However the Pardah in modern times is not a thick opaque cloth, but that of an apparent arrogance, of power, of prejudices, that ignores the very presence of others. The only difference is that one is self imposed while the other is more of an obligation. What happens under such circumstances where the spatial presence is being coagulated in a transparent or opaque, rational or unnatural hindrance? How does it affect the clarity of communication and conviction?
How certainty of existence becomes critical, and seeing becomes believing? In hindsight, have the constraints given men a taste of oppression, which had been enforced on women for ages? Has the pandemic fortuitously levelled out the gender differences?
Myself standing against the acrylic glass.