Sculpting Intimacy

Sculpting Intimacy invites audiences to use their hands to mould/arrange the body parts of two male ‘performer-mannequins’, into positions of intimacy. The performers hold the position their bodies have been arranged in, until the next spectator touches and rearranges them.

The installation is designed to provoke ‘active allyship’ by inviting audiences to become complicit and responsible in the politics of making intimacy between two people possible/legal in the Indian context, and in public spaces.

The work emerged as a response to article 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which until 2018 criminalized homosexuality. Although the ‘decriminalization’ of homosexuality in 2018 marked major legal progress for LGBTQIA+ rights, societal stigmas and biases against LGBTQIA+ communities persist.

The work is meant to be performed by 2 same gender-identifying bodies of any age. Although imagined for public spaces, it can also be showcased at galleries or intimate venues.

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