My name is Shruti Kalgi and I am currently majoring in Cultural Anthropology at Uppsala University and exploring themes that intersect Art and Anthropology. Cultural Anthropology is the study of people in relation to cultures and how their lives are rendered meaningful through various identity-making processes. Perhaps, philosophy but with people in it. I am exploring Art as a method of Anthropological documentation.
Project NO NA[ME] consists of projects “SAR[I]” which explores how a Sari as a garment constructs a feminine gender identity among South Asian women, trans women and men, “I AM THE STORY IT[SELF]” about Yakshagana (a theatrical artform from southern coastal India), and “HO[ME]” which visually explores the notion of a Home. NO NA[ME] is a collection of three Art-Anthropological projects that explore the processes of identity-making through negotiating with the notions of home, migration and gender – as a form of embodiment. Bridging the fields of visual art and cultural anthropology, I wish to understand identitymaking processes that render life meaningful, and present such interdisciplinary works to alternative audiences outside of academia to encourage a dialogue in a newfound setting – where displaced souls like me can rediscover themselves in relation to the artworks and the anthropological writings that contextualise them. The projects are based on interviews, observations and self-reflections (autoethnography) exploring life as a lived experience among my research participants. These identity-making processes cannot be generalised and put under a single name. Hence, the title NO NA[ME] – where each and every one negotiating with life will adhere differently to the [ME] – the self – in this context.
The project consists of illustrations, photography, artefacts, journal writings and textual analysis