This post is not particularly on any topic given, it is one of my experience I want to share, I don’t know if it is relevant to this, but I want to share about a colour which I never liked before but somehow I started liking it after an incident.
I never liked pink as a colour , I don’t know why but somehow I feel in school friends used to say its a girl s colour , and I used to believe that, girls love pink I used to believe, that thinking about a colour was very deep that I was afraid of using pink in my works, if I used the pink colour I only used it in any girl dress or bags . somehow I had that thinking till I experienced pink.
One day I was just playing with my camera, I was on my terrace I saw one of my mother pink sari (dress) was there to dry. I went close to the sari and I have seen outside through that pink sari , I was covered by pink ,camera was there I clicked many pictures , did two videos , what a pretty colour, I realised later that the pink filter on my eye was essential to see something else which I was believing wasn’t true . a colour cannot be specified to any gender, my old thinking about colour was changed due to this . after that I started using pink, I still cannot wear pink dress I don’t know why but somehow I am not totally over of that thinking of” pink as a girls colour “ but I use pink in my works because first of all, I like pink now, and somehow pink reminds me of that old thinking about colour which my family told, friends told and I believed . I don’t think it is a big deal for anybody, but for me, this change in me was very important to me I learn from my experience. there are only some colours I like to use, pink is one of them now.The colour was not that important to me before, gradually there are some colours which are becoming important to me. These are some images of that day.
these are some of my works after I started using pink in my works. first one is in watercolour and pen on paper, second work is in mixed media.
I really like these works. The way the fabric is so light, drapes and moves gives it a sense of freedom and the how you have taken photos through it and in parts your hand is in it really communicates how you have incorporated the colour into your self in someways now as opposed to denying it as ‘the other’. Thanks for sharing and being so honest 🙂
Hey ,thanks for the response , i also like this series of photograph of pink , , i am still working on it on the video i did , will upload it when it is finshed . 🙂 thankyou
Its true, that we can not attach a certain colour to a gender, but we this are some of the binaries that we as artist have to break.
We were conditioned at a young age that “bright colours are for girls and solid colours are for boys” all this is a social conditioning which has a very long history as to how do we associate with colour.
I also grow up in a an environment where at a early age if a boy said their favourite colour was red or yellow, they seemed like they were soft and often teased, This goes back to how : “self changes for other” so in order to feel accepted within a group of friends one has to behave or like the same things they do.
I think your post speaks of a very sensitive issue which needs more discussion, “how other influences self and how self influences other”
There are many things like this , like from childhood the concept of beauty for me is very confusing , what is beauty , and what is not . Colour of skin in girls and boys is the measure , iused to think that but now gradually it is changing , there are some sort of fixed mentality we grow from the beginning , body shape is another thing which i am most concerned with , like let me share something when i was in school my friends used to tease me having man boobs , and they used to do very bad things which i didnt used to like, gradually i started hating my body , i didnt want my body there was a time which was very depressing , many girls refused me because of my body shape directly insulted me about my body , i grew it became a normal thing to be teased but in college i met somebody who told me first be comfortable in your body ,believe in who u r , it gave me a confidence then i started drawings of my body at that time i didnt knew that this drawings will be my work i just did those because i like to show my body in drawing because in reality i never shown my body to anybody , i dont know u ll believe it or not but. , then gradually i started editing them and after that slowly slowy i started gaining confidence about my self ,my works helped me in my real life , i am not totally over of this body complex but i am trying and , there are some people in my life i get inspirations , i dont know weathee it is relevant to ur post or not , but i wanted to share this , i want u to share something which ur mostly concerned with , this is one of my work from the series “I”
Thank you Souvik for your brave posts. I understand how incredibly difficult it is to not fit the box of a “traditional masculine body” in our country. I like that you have channelled a deep insecurity into a medium of your practice. By allowing for a perceived imperfection to manifest itself in an inspiring body of work, you have embodied the essence of creating art.
Thankyou for your response to my post i was little worried , i spoke to much. i think if we can share some of our thinkings and experiences we can know each other more as we come from different background and cultures and many other differences are there .
Hi Souvik,
we are sorry the image in your response is so small. We are working on making those images larger…
the EAS team
Thankyou ,it will be great if it is possible . Because in small images we all cant see many details,and some of our works need to see in detail .
It reminds me of a girl I know who also made a project about pink. It might be interesting : http://www.nanowallenius.com/pink.php
thank you, for the link, and yes it is interesting.