Question of Identity

In a critique of India’s unique identity card project, a group of artists offers alternative paradigms of individual recognition.

In a critique of India’s unique identity card project, a group of artists offers alternative paradigms of individual recognition.

Defining identity is no simple affair. To some, it stems from the physical attributes unique to a person—a dazzling smile, an inimitable style of walking, scars acquired in a fight, a birthmark over the chin; while to others, it extends to the morals, ethics and experiences that one has gathered over time. Then there is the concept of a shared history that often frames a socio-cultural identity for a group of people. With India’s ambitious Aadhaar project aiming to provide every Indian with a unique identification card (UID) by 2011, questions about identity and individuality have acquired a sense of urgency. While the implementers argue that UID will enhance accountability in public affairs, questions are being asked if there aren’t more dignified ways of defining people than just a cold set of figures.

As this debate gathers force in the public domain, Vadehra Art Gallery has used it as a starting point to see how artists engage with the issue. It recently brought together artists like Shilpa Gupta, Tejal Shah, Atul Bhalla, Praneet Soi, Mansi Bhatt and Desire Machine Collective as part of the unique show, ‘ID/entity,’ to critically analyse questions about identity, gender, race and nationality. “For nearly a month, the gallery was converted into an open ended space. There were no sections with six paintings on a wall. There was a sense of an event; of the gallery being part of a laboratory of ideas,” says Vidya Shivadas, a member of the curatorial team.

One of the most interesting creations was by Atul Bhalla, an artist who has been known for his long standing engagement with environmental causes. He offered microscopic photographs of the various identifying marks on his body as disembodied markers of identity and placed them in light boxes. Viewers were encouraged to pick up the light boxes and walk around the gallery space. “It was almost as if they were picking up a part of me. A lot of people didn’t feel comfortable with the concept,” says Atul. His other display, titled Ablutions, talks about religious identities of people. “When you visit a mosque, temple or church, you are supposed to wash yourself. This whole process makes you very conscious of your identity,” he adds.

A lot of artists brought in a sense of performance into the exhibition. For instance, Tejal Shah invited viewers to become part of the creation. Titled An Exercise in Trust, this multidisciplinary work employed video, photography, performance and installations to explore the duality of trust and mistrust. “One of the viewers was invited to blindfold Tejal and walk her around the gallery. But before doing so, the person needed to deposit his or her I-card. This experiment drew attention to the element of mistrust in society about how some information could be used or misused,” explains Vidya.
Mansi Bhatt’s creation used her own theatrical potential. This Mumbai-based artist masqueraded as three men—a young man, a homeless old man and a middle-aged balding man. “These three cool guys are my city’s identity. The viewers subconsciously transform themselves into any one of these three. The gender identity, even the gender politics for that matter, collapses there and that is the performative aspect of this work,” explains Mansi.

From individualities, the works soon graduate to political identities. Guwahati-based Desire Machine Collective presented the everyday violence experienced by the youth in the Northeast through two creations: Daily Check-up and 25-75. “Identity is a very hybrid concept in the Northeast and is extremely subjective. For instance, Hindi cinema is almost banned in Manipur, and most of the people are avid fans of Korean films. In fact, a lot of people even speak Korean now. The identities there have undergone a huge change,” says Sonal Jain, one of the members of the Collective.

Yet another such work was by artist Shilpa Gupta who focused on how geographical boundaries shape an individual’s identity. She invited 100 people to draw maps of India and found to her amusement that none of them matched. “A lot of people have spontaneously included Sri Lanka as part of India. This is reflective of the whole big brother attitude,” she says. Through this exercise, she was trying to question the whole territorial construct of an identity based on a country, the construct of nationalism. “Aren’t there more human ways of defining people than just things that can go into a database? For instance, say you have an art opening in a metropolis like Mumbai. That work might be relevant in a city like Paris which is located a thousand miles away. But it might hold no meaning in a small village located merely 100 km from Mumbai. So then, how do geographical boundaries define us?” asks Shilpa.
“Society allows you to change. Tomorrow, you could be sitting on a mountain and become a sadhu. But once you are assigned a particular number, would you still be able to do that? Or would it be like in the West, where you would be arrested for not having an identification number? I am questioning the curtailment of this freedom,” says Atul.

critiqueUnique Identity Project