Mehreen Jabbar the New York- Based Award- Winning Director and Producer on Cinema That Transcends Borders
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February 2021 Vol 5 Issue 2 Mehreen Jabbar The New York- based award- winning director and producer on cinema that transcends borders THE STORYTELLER BRIDGE BUILDERS LINE OF CONTROL Bestselling novelist Peace activist Kirthi Artist Reena Saini and literary icon Chitra Jayakumar and political Kallat on Partition Banerjee Divakaruni cartoonist Saadia Gardezi and nationality contents Both Sides of the Border 06 Indian artist and sculptor Reena Saini Kallat Driven by the Story 16 Cover personality Mehreen Jabbar Relearning Democracy 22 Founder of Conflictorium Museum Avni Sethi ON THE COVER: Mehreen Jabbar PHOTOGRAPHY: Qudsia Farrukh / QZB Being Mariah Review of Mariah Carey’s new autobiography Photography 26 Towards an Ideal World 30 Scholar and peace activist Kirthi Jayakumar The Memory Project 34 Cartoonist Saadia Gardezi’s Project Dastaan For Body & Planet 38 Eco-friendly, low-cost menstrual products Keeping Crafts Alive 42 Social entrepreneur Mehr F Husain 12 The Storyteller Bestselling novelist Chitra Healing Inside Out Banerjee Divakaruni 46 UK yoga teacher Caroline Purvey FEBRUARY 2021 4 | EDITOR’S NOTE BUILDING BRIDGES ne can argue that chasms have always existed Oin our society. That differences have always led to conflict and even war. That disunity between communities, religions, linguistic regions and fiefdoms has been more the norm in South Asia than unity and solidarity. I’d argue, however, that this is the nature of pa- triarchy and toxic masculinity that seeks to domi- nate and rule (women co-opt into this system too). That, to evolve as a race and as a people, we need to balance it out with more feminine energy and qualities of care, regeneration and inclusivity. That is why eShe is on a quest to bring together women of this region and to generate ideas and solutions for a grassroots movement towards peace in South Asia. This not only means an end to unnecessary conflict and war, but is also a necessary long-term solution for growth and development in this region. Since our male-dominated political establishment could not – or would not – do it, can Aekta Kapoor we do it through ‘soft power’, through our shared Editor and Publisher heritage, culture, arts, design, education, literature [email protected] and cinema? Can we at least talk about it? Dialogue is the key that unlocks the door to peace. eShe’s Indo-Pak Peace Summit Led by Women was the first step. Next is our South Asia Union Summit Led by Women coming up this summer. There is much work to be done. Join us and be on the right side of history. Editor and Publisher: Aekta Kapoor Mentor: Kul Bhushan Business Director: Kaveri Jain All rights reserved throughout the world. : Manasvi Jerath Reproduction in any manner is prohibited. Community Manager Published by Aekta Kapoor from Coral Contributors: Kay Newton, Manvi Pant, Content, C3/1 GF, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi Maya Lalchandani, Neha Kirpal, Smitha 110057, India. Phone: +91 9971116621. For Murthy, Shweta Bhandral queries, write to [email protected], or visit eShe.in FEBRUARY 2021 PERSONAL GROWTH | 5 INDO-PAK PEACE SUMMIT LED BY WOMEN We thank all our amazing panelists, speakers, hosts and attendees for a phenomenal summit with thought-provoking discussions and constructive dialogue. May these words and voices ring in peace in South Asia. FEBRUARY 2021 ART | 7 BOTH SIDES OF THE BORDER Artist Reena Saini Kallat’s work looks at social and political borders by bringing the focus on manmade barriers and symbols of nationality By Shweta Bhandral or Reena Saini Kallat, art has mother to cancer early on in life. “I been a means of inquiry as well never thought of art as a profession, F as a tool for expressing person- but a way of existence that’s as nat- al and collective concerns. As one ural as breathing,” she narrates. of India’s most notable artists, her As a child, Reena collected mag- works span drawing, photography, azine clippings and books on art. sculpture and videos that largely These introduced her to the lives dwell on the fluidity of borders and and thoughts of artists. She was keen the futility in drawing boundaries on a career in medicine, hoping to when nature itself is boundless. find a cure for cancer, but her father Reena’s journey into art began recognised her talent and urged her out of a sense of loss. She lost her to pursue her interest in art. Facing page and above left: Verso-Recto-Recto-Verso (2017 – 2019); above right: Reena Saini Kallat FEBRUARY 2021 8 | ART Reena Saini Kallat’s work Light Leaks, Winds Meet Where the Waters Spill Deceit (2010) depicts two halves of the gate on Wagah Border, each wrapped in sacred red thread, which is part of both the cultures of India and Pakistan. It is often tied to get wishes fulfilled and untied when these get accomplished. FEBRUARY 2021 ART | 9 Born in Delhi, Reena grew up migration, and divisive national in Mumbai. Studying at the Sir narratives are distinct in her recent JJ School of Arts, visiting librar- works. Being from a family with ies across the city and learning art roots in Lahore, she has heard sto- history changed her perspective. ries of how her uncle had to leave “During my college days in the everything behind and rebuild their 1990s, I enjoyed the works of art- lives from scratch in India. ists like Louise Bourgeois, Christian Reena depicts nature’s oneness Boltanski, Rachel Whiteread, Susan and the confluence of rivers, birds Hiller and Anish Kapoor. In the In- and trees while highlighting how all dian context, it was artists like Nali- ni Malani, Vivan Sundaram, Arpita Singh and Nasreen Mohamedi’s work that I responded to,” she says, adding that she was more drawn to work by women artists. Reena’s secular household nurtured her with liberal ideas. She describes, “Growing up in the suburbs of Bombay with a dynamic mix of neighbours from every possible religion, there was a sense of pride of living in an inclusive society with access to diverse cultural experiences.” The 1992 and 2002 riots were turning points for her. “I was in college when we saw began to notice the rise of right- Siamese Trees (2014) by Reena Saini Kallat wing fundamentalist thought with electoral politics dividing people by divisions are manmade. She shares, engendering hate and fear, perhaps “While flying across the border be- the legacy of Partition,” says Reena. tween India and Pakistan one night Reena had her first solo exhi- in 2001, I saw the Line of Control bition in Mumbai in 1998. Since lit up like an incision on the ground. then, she has travelled all around It was a chilling experience, and the India and the world with her paint- feeling stayed with me for years. I ings, sculptures, installations and made several visits to the Wagah audio-visual works. Her interest in Atari border, experienced the con- political borders, the pain of forced troversial Radcliffe Line drawn to FEBRUARY 2021 10 | ART Hyphenated Lives (2015 – 2016) is a re-imagining of fantastical mutations within the natural world, where the national animals, birds and flowers of different countries symbolically get combined partition the two countries through cal-sounding drone, factory sirens, the no-man’s land. Yet it is more the and ship horns that intermingle social barriers between communi- with sounds of migratory birds. ties than the physical border itself “I was thinking about the fi- that I constantly think about.” bre-optic cables that traverse the Her work Woven Chronicle (2011- ocean floors, connecting us, and the 2016) traces the movement of mi- way technology is trying to unify grants historically. It depicts the and flatten the world with access to earliest migratory movement out information. Wires essentially trans- of Africa, labour migrations, move- mit energy and information from ment within industrial societies one place to another. Technology and even the more recent ones. A and commerce are blurring geo- wall drawing is made with electric graphic boundaries,” she says. wires knotted to form continents. In one of her more recent works, Its audio component resonates Reena revisits the Constitution. Ti- with high-voltage electric current tled Verso-Recto-Recto-Verso (2017– sounds, deep-sea ambient sounds, 2019), the installation comprises the hum of engaged tones from textual scrolls of the Constitutions telecommunications, a mechani- of eight countries. The preambles of FEBRUARY 2021 ART | 11 L-R: Blind Spots (2017 – 2019) features the Constitutions of 12 pairs of warring nations; Chorus 1 (2015) these politically partitioned coun- and several private galleries active- tries’ Constitutions are revealed as ly showcasing art that is socially white dots on a blue and black cloth and politically engaged. We have to through the process of tie and dye work in solidarity and partnership by artisans from Bhuj. The founda- for art to have an impact,” she avers. tional words common to both pre- The 47-year-old visual artist be- ambles are in Braille, about which lieves in the transformative pow- Reena says, “We seem to have lost er of art, which is what keeps her sight of our common shared values, going. She says, “There is always a with our failure to recognise our sense of hope, and that lies in how interdependence.” She speaks of the we imagine our future and partici- limitations of language at being able pate in creating it. It would be naïve to express deep notions of loss. of us not to recognise our intercon- Reena regrets the lack of muse- nectedness and interdependence on um-going culture in India. Schools each other for our existence.