By Chennai Photo Biennale
Chennai Photo Biennale 2019
Fairer People = Beautiful People + Powerful People (2012) by Arpan MukherjeeOriginal Source: Artist Website
Exhibiting Artists
Akhila Vijayaraghavan | India
Arpan Mukherjee | India
Chan Hyo-Bae | Korea
Shadi Gharidian | Iran
Fierce (2017) by Akhila VijayaraghavanOriginal Source: Artist Website
Fierce
By Akhila Vijayaraghavan (IND)
Fierce is an ongoing project started in 2017 by Akhila Vijayraghavan to explore the strength, joy, and ownership that physical activity brings to women within the Indian context.
Fierce (2017) by Akhila VijayaraghavanOriginal Source: Artist Website
Having been an active sports-person from an early age, she intimately understands the connection between movement and self-perception.
Fierce by Akhila VijayaraghavanOriginal Source: Artist Website
She hopes that Fierce will kick-start a dialogue on body positivity, especially among young girls who deal with unrealistic expectations of the female body. Read more
Fairer People = Beautiful People + Powerful People (2012) by Arpan MukherjeeOriginal Source: Artist Website
Fairer People = Beautiful People + Powerful People
By Arpan Mukherjee (IND)
A discussion was initiated among a group of dark complexion boys and girls on their experience of being dark. Issues about discrimination on the basis of skin colour and its possible reasons were discussed.
Fairer People = Beautiful People + Powerful People (2012) by Arpan MukherjeeOriginal Source: Artist Website
Apart from the general thought that it derived from our colonial past, they also think that in our society it has a roll in terms of power demonstration.
Fairer People = Beautiful People + Powerful People (2012) by Arpan MukherjeeOriginal Source: Artist Website
Arpan Mukherjee used wet plate collodion and albumen print process to make their portrait, which has an established connection to anthropological photographic documentation process of Indian race and tribes by British photographers. Read more
Existing in Costume (2005-2007) by Chan-Hyo BaeOriginal Source: Artist Website
Existing in Costumes
By Chan-Hyo Bae (South Korea)
From a historical or social point of view, the difference of culture and language has been one of the most important standards that make a distinction between various social classes.
Existing in Costume (2005-2007) by Chan-Hyo BaeOriginal Source: Artist Website
Furthermore, this historical and cultural prejudice caused another prejudice against social positions in capitalist societies, transmitted from generation to generation by education or other social conventions.
Existing in Costume (2005-07) by Chan-Hyo BaeOriginal Source: Artist Website
Bae, in this self portrait series, expresses his feelings as an Asian immigrant and his feeling of alienation or the chaos of identity. Read more
Ctrl+Alt+Del (2016) by Shadi GhadirianOriginal Source: Artist Website
Ctrl + Alt + Del
By Shadi Ghadirian (Iran)
They have transformed us. They have veiled us. Sometimes we hide behind them. Sometimes we get lost before them. Sometimes we scavenge them in search of lost loves. Through them, we sometimes escape the Real World. With one click, we sometimes get deleted.
They have transformed us. They are not like our mothers. They are unique to our era, to today's woman in a modern world. They transform us. They organize us. The read and write us. "They" are tiny icons on our computer. They define us the way you now see, me, today's woman. Read more
Know more about the artists and their works on the Chennai Photo Biennale website.
Click here to listen to the CPB 2019 Artist Talks.
CPB2019 Programs
CPB Foundation organised curated walks and guided tours and conducted various workshops, photo walks, artist talks, films on photography and curated projections on the beach during the 2019 Biennale.