Shifting is a series of visual essays which is part of the Kadak Reading Room, first presented at Gender Bender, September 2016. Goethe Institut | Max-Mueller Bhavan, Bangalore. It was further extended to become a visual narration (live experience act) at the Story of Space Festival in Goa, India; November 2017.
Shifting was primarily born out of the question that I've been pondering over a little while – How does gender influence us on a daily basis? While trying to figure this out, I had a series of personal experiences where my gender has rolled out like a red carpet in front of me. Whether I like it or not. On further discussion I realised a lot of people I spoke to had similar experiences. So now Shifting is a collection of narratives of many people – mine, friends and friends of friends. The narratives aim to capture and explore the the subtle gender shifts that we mentally make as we move around in modern society conforming to pre-existing gender roles and biases.
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Many thanks to the members of the Kadak Collective, the festival team at Story of Space – Jaya Ramchandani, Deshna Mehta, Ann Van Den Borne, Akshay Roongta and Zubin Savla who helped to bring this to life.