This case story illuminates the components of visual art pedagogy applied within the context of a broader popular education framework addressing gender justice.

Specifically, the narrative highlights the process and outcomes of a workshop dedicated to the issue of violence against women, wherein methodologies encompassing image theatre, visual art and storytelling were integrated. The culmination of this workshop manifested in a widespread poster campaign in villages of the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, India.

Lead Facilitator

Charanya Ramakrishnan

Collaborators

Each Mixit project brings on board a wide range of collaborators, including leading artists from New Zealand who work with Mixit youth leaders to facilitate projects.

Expanded Summary:

Between 2017-2020 I was part of popular education facilitating team, of the Kudali Intergenerational learning centre, anchored by Yakshi Resource and Creativity Centre for Rural Children and Youth. Kudali anchor various popular education initiatives to build critical consciousness, especially amongst youth organisers. The themes of these educational encounters range from gender justice, caste discrimination, constitutional justice, food sovereignty and climate change. Cultural actions and art as a tool for healing and consciousness building is a core aspect of the educational curriculum. As a visual artist my work revolved around ways in which visual art could be part of the popular education process.

The women who participated in this workshop are from villages in the state Telangana, India Their organising base is with Bahujan communities. The term, Bahujan was popularised by the political philosopher Kanshi Ram, and refers to the unifying term of ‘the majority’ or ‘greater people’ that does not include the upper-caste populations.

The Unexpected:

In the session on the visualisation of the forms of violence, one of the women froze in a pose of being subjected to violence while her partner drew this image. This relates to what Augusto Boal in his games that he conceived refers to an exercise known as ‘breaking repression’, that involves the participant to recall a moment of repression and ‘sculpt’ the particular image or situation. In image theatre, the participant would enact this moment in their bodies as a still image. This mix of image theatre in creating visuals is moving, yet as a facilitator I was aware that image theatre has a certain process wherein the participant needs to moves out of the image by ‘shaking off’ the character. However, since I do not have the experience of facilitating image theatre processes, I did not address this situation. Later after the session, the woman who was posing told me that she felt exhausted and frustrated to have been in that position through the session. One of my learnings from the process is to always have an exercise of movement to shake off the memory of trauma that is held in the body. Even the act of drawing one’s trauma is a form of embodying it, and it’s important to have cathartic body exercises woven into the pedagogy and this is part of the ways in which considerations of care is part of pedagogy.

Care needs to be taken as a visual art facilitator to not impose your artistic perspective to the final representation. As an artist there is a certain disposition to the way I like an image to look. But I realised through these artistic dialogues, is that the process is making the visuals is important in the healing process and in building one’s sense of self in association or in disassociation from the image. While the act of drawing from memory is a way of association to the situation, the act of erasing that same image and changing it to a desired outcome, is a way of imagining a desired situation.

...care and healing is both collective and specific.

— Charanya R
OUTCOME:

The workshop led to the creation of a poster. This was a powerful way of collectivising the images and through that collectivising the experiences towards a campaign. As a facilitator, I decided that the final poster would be a compilation of the original images made by the group. The same women who made the images also led the campaign in their villages. Over 1000 copies of these posters were disseminated in the villages, and the women who were part of making the posters also used them to facilitate dialogues in the villages. If I had edited the final images, then the work loses the relational aspect of it , which is a key aspect of organising.

QUESTIONS:

I want to further understand how image making relates with memory. By drawing something from our memory, does the memory get strengthened or are we able to put it down on paper and disassociate from the image? Especially while drawing images of memories of trauma, are there tools that artists can use to direct the process towards healing and building strength?

CONSIDERATIONS:

As a facilitator it is important to know one’s locationality and positionality especially in healing and trauma related organising actions. My location as a woman, intersects with my caste, class and religion and having not embodied the Bahujan women’s experience, I ensured to the farthest extent possible that only the images drawn by the Bahujan women were part of the final poster and that their voice was led and amplified by this process.

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I recognise that care and healing is both collective and specific. As an artist rooted in feminist pedagogy, I recognise that there is a lot of strength in collectivising individual oppression in the lines of personal being political. The sessions were designed in way to allow the individual images of oppression to be collectivised in the final large canvas. We are able to visually see that the violence I face, is faced by others too, and therefore we can act together and heal together. The pedagogy has to be designed so we can draw strength from each other, and care for each other, rather than feeling as victims of oppression.

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Anger and sadness are part of the healing process. As an artist and facilitator it's important to create spaces wherein the power of art can be used to channel emotions of trauma. However care needs to be taken in ensuring that there is a process of addressing those emotions through a cathartic healing process. Wellness circles, rituals of collective breathing, dance and music circles are some of the methods that I have used in the past.

RESOURCES

To learn more, or for more information please see:

Definitions:

A Māori concept that refers to the process of showing respect, generosity and care for others.

In this context "kaupapa" means subject, purpose or agenda.

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