‘I wear my headscarf as cultural signifier for who I am and what I believe.’
Arpita Shah was born in Ahmedabad, India in 1983. She is a photographic artist and educator based in Scotland. She spent the earlier part of her life living between India, Ireland and the Middle East before settling in the UK in 1992.
This migratory experience is reflected in her practice, which often focuses on the notion of home, belonging and shifting cultural identities.
This exhibition in the upstairs room at Autograph ABP in Shoreditch, contains thirteen large, crystal clear, digital portraits of women of Asian extraction wearing various forms of traditional headwear.
The exhibition is an exploration of the meaning of ‘purdah’. In Shah’s own words:
‘From the Persian word ‘پرده’ meaning ‘to curtain’, the term Purdah varies in use and meanings amongst particular South Asian cultures. It can refer literally to a piece of cloth, but is also used traditionally to signify the veiling, seclusion and privacy of women.
‘The women in these portraits represent a variety of cloths, which they wear day to day, during worship, or at particular religious occasions. Ranging from Sikh women in dastar and dupatta, to Hindu women in their sarees, Purdah also includes Muslim women wearing the niqab, abaya, and personal variations of the hijab.
‘These portraits attempt to shift the focus of the Purdah from the physical to the spiritual act of drawing open and closing the sacred cloths that each sitter chooses to embody. The work seeks to enrich our understanding of the practice of Purdah, and redress common misconceptions around the tradition of head covering and veiling, through representations of contemporary women who choose to practice its tradition.
‘Purdah slowly unfolds the complex and intimate relationships that these women have with their sacred cloths, offering us a glimpse into its varied uses and interpretations across diverse cultural and spiritual worlds.’
In the exhibition, each of the photos is accompanied by a quote giving the thoughts and feelings of the sitter about the type of headgear they are wearing. Oddly, neither on the ABP website nor on Shah’s own website a) are the photos given names or titles b) or the quotes matched to any of the women photographed. On her own website they float free of any source:
The photographs are stunningly precise and clear, but I didn’t get a clear sense of the traditions of each different type of headgear – Hindi, Muslim, Sikh etc – because they were mentioned in just a sentence or two, next to a quote from each sitter which are generally not very factual so that there wasn’t really enough information to get a grip on, and process.
For example, a woman is quoted as saying:
‘My chunni is a way of protecting my grace, integrity and being more respectful to my faith and God.’
Which I read and assimilated, but I still don’t know what a chunni is. In the same way that neither the ABP website or Shah’s own website name the women or indicate which one said what, there is also no information about the different types of headwear in the photos. I am as ignorant as I was beforehand about the precise nature of, and physical and religious differences between, the head-scarf, hijab, dastar, niqab, sari, chunni, dupatta, tuding, abaya, and so on. They remain as mysterious to me after seeing the exhibition, as they did before.
Instead I got just one ‘take-home message’ which is about the sheer variety of types of headwear which are available to Asian women and which, apparently, all come under the heading of purdah. Alongside the even simpler one which is – that Shah is a stunning portrait photographer.
The exhibition didn’t change my perception or understanding of Asian female headwear because there wasn’t enough information to understand and, as to perception, all the women quoted said they chose to wear the headwear that they are wearing, and wore it with pride – which I sort of expected them to say.
If I had an opinion on the subject of Asian women’s headwear before the exhibition, it remained unchanged by the exhibition itself, and is – Women can wear whatever they want, obvz. Don’t need my approval, your approval, anyone’s approval. That is meant to be part of what it is to live in a free society.
Installation view of Purdah – The Sacred Cloth by Arpita Shah
Related links
- Purdah – The Sacred Cloth by Arpita Shah continues at Autograph ABP until 3 November 2018
- Arpita Shah website
Reviews of other Autograph shows
- Liberty / Diaspora by Omar Victor Diop (November 2018)
- I Am Now You – Mother by Marcia Michael (June 2018)
- Devotion: A Portrait of Loretta by Franklyn Rodgers (June 2018)
Review of photography exhibitions
- New East Photo Prize 2018 @ Calvert 22 (December 2018)
- Shirley Baker: Personal Collection @ the Photographers’ Gallery (June 2018)
- Alex Prager: Silver Lake Drive @ the Photographers’ Gallery (June 2018)
- Tish Murtha: Works 1976 – 1991 @ the Photographers’ Gallery (June 2018)
- Killed Negatives @ the Whitechapel Gallery (June 2018)
- Work in Process (May 2018)
- Under Cover: A Secret History Of Cross-Dressers @ the Photographers’ Gallery (May 2018)
- Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize @ the Photographers’ Gallery (May 2018)
- The Great British Seaside @ National Maritime Museum (May 2018)
- Another Kind of Life: Photography on the Margins @ the Barbican (April 2018)
- Andreas Gursky @ the Hayward Gallery (April 2018)
- Post-Soviet Visions @ Calvert 22 Foundation (March 2018)
- Illuminating India @ the Science Museum (February 2018)
- Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2017 @ the National Portrait Gallery (January 2018)
- Syria: A Conflict Explored @ the Imperial War Museum (May 2017)
- The Radical Eye @ Tate Modern (March 2017)
- Malick Sidibé @ Somerset House (January 2017)
- Don McCullin (March 2017)
- Shaped by War by Don McCullin (2010)
- Unreasonable Behaviour by Don McCullin (2015)
- Paul Strand: Photography and Film for the 20th Century @ the V and A (June 2016)
- Beard @ Somerset House (March 2015)
- Performing for the Camera @ Tate Modern (March 2016)
- Unseen City: Photos by Martin Parr @ Guildhall Art Gallery (March 2016)
- Peter Kennard @ Imperial War Museum London (May 2015)
- Salt and Silver @ Tate Britain (April 2015)
- Conflict, Time, Photography @ Tate Modern (March 2015)
- Everything Was Moving: Photography from the 60s and 70s @ the Barbican (November 2012)
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