Gauri Gill – Untitled (2015)

Exhibition poster featuring the work, Untitled (2015), by master Indian photographer, Gauri Gill, released in conjunction with Louisiana's extensive exhibition of more than 200 works by Gill, revolving around depictions of life in marginalized rural communities, outside the Indian metropolises. Gauri Gill places modern India's overlooked and outsiders in the middle of the picture—and thus in our field of vision.

The work is from the series "Acts of Appearance": In ordinary everyday scenes, the characters wear masks and appear confidently as "extra exotic"—in a humorous showdown with the clichés about indigenous society. The series is based on a close collaboration between Gauri Gill and artists from local tribes in the Indian state of Maharashtra.

Giving visibility to girls and women, particularly from rural areas dominated by patriarchal power structures, is a major driving force in much of Gill's work.

The same is the desire to emphasize a diversity of voices and points of view, which is expressed in experimental collaborations and collective works.

The portrait—based on close relationships with the people and places portrayed—forms the central focal point of her extensive body of work, which engages with poetic beauty, empathy, humor and political engagement.

From her base in New Delhi, Gauri Gill has attracted attention on the international art scene, not least at documenta in 2017 and the Venice Biennale in 2019, with an original body of work that encompasses several photographic genres—from classic documentary photography to, as here, staged tableaus and numerous works, created in collaboration with others.