Beauty and the Beast: Celebrating Women Who Bear. – an exhibition of photographs from INDIA. The idea behind the Women Who Bear concept has been one that has captivated me visually as well as metaphorically and symbolically. Women seem to be still bearing a great deal , not just a human life in their wombs, but much of societies ills and burdens. This shows itself in some of these images as women carrying a whole variety of loads upon their heads, from food, to firewood, to the ubiquitous and extremely heavy water pots, to huge rocks and stones from building sites where they work side by side the men in rural communities under the scorching sun. Seeing these women who often have lost their voice, and their right to choose in many parts of the world , and silently bear the unbearable burdens of oppression, repression, chauvinism and misogyny that are still so widely prevalent in our world.
This exhibition juxtaposes what seems like two opposites: Beauty and Violence. How many millions of women in this day and age are still being subjected to unbelievable levels of injustice and inhumanity, and how they carry within them the burdens and pains unaddressed by our society.enacted upon them through acts of rape, female cutting, forced enslavement and prostitution, honor killings, being married off at an early an age, and infanticide, these women manage to hang onto their dignity. These images are an homage to their beauty , strength and courage in the face of such violence.
