Inside / Anuradha Upadhyay

"Inside" was performed by Anuradha Upadhyay as a part of the Young Subcontinent Project for the Serendipity Arts Festival in Goa, on 16th December 2016. In the inner courtyard of the Adil Shah Palace - Anuradha prepared for her performance invoking the environment through mythical symbolic themes. Defined within the geography of several pots was a triangular arena outlined with series of candles that would be lit up during the performance. The pots, the candles and the red triangle (created using the sacred red sindoor) clearly refer to ideas of fertility, gender and sexuality. Each pot contained different experiences of growth - some poked by sharp objects, some filled with masculinity, and and another trapped within barbed wires. Bound within the carefully constructed diagrams, as well as within the four walled geography of the palace's womb - the performance began with the recital of Kabir's poem, followed by a short passage.

One with the ground, contained within a red translucent fabric, the performer almost appears to be like a seed erupting from the earth. The next fifteen minutes saw her struggle to release herself from the bounds of societal confines. The performance/setting recalls several mythical tropes that have come to define the dual status of women, particularly in the Indian society - the birth of Sita from the soil, or the laxman rekha - the boundary that puts her in trouble on crossing it... Women in India are often held in this duality - where on one hand they are considered to be sacred sustainers of life, while on the other, they are imposed with several societal restrictions in the way they behave, speak, dress up and so on. The fight begins from the moment when the seed is planted in the womb. 

The issue of women's liberation is certainly not just an Indian one. It is shared across most cultures in the subcontinent, as well as beyond. Often, what holds back women from acting against such domination is their own cultural conditioning, which creates an ethical-moral dilemma that can be quite emotionally disturbing. In such confused state, often women define new limits of liberty, inscribed within their limitations. It is hard to open up new questions when we still dealing with, and waiting for the earlier ones to be answered. 

One wonders if it may be a pointless exercise - when the upholders of the state rights (equality of women) themselves speak a language disqualifying their questions! I am referring to the recent molestation of a woman that took place in Bangalore over the New Year 2017! Inside provokes the audience to experience frustration - what it fees like to be caught up within in the mythical, social, moral, ideological, symbolic as well as constitutional traps - what it feels like to be a woman. Perhaps.

 

Anuradha Upadhyay's ideas and work covered in the newspaper Sakaal Times, 8th January 2017. In the context of the molestation case over the new Year in Bengaluru, India (incidentally also included on the page by the editor), the performance gains more significance.