Tejal Shah (b. 1979)
What are you? (2006)
What are you? 2006, explores the malleable language of gender, physically manipulated not only by her chosen subjects, the hirja (transgender) community, but also through the deployment of various forms of media. A two-channel video installation with both screens positioned together {Please clarify, is this side by side? Top to bottom? Face to face? Front to back?}, super-8 is fused with video-style footage, which flows into formal portraiture, woven within found footage not only to reflect an interest in the formal aspects of her work but also replicating the complexities of the hirjas’ life and the ways in which they negotiate and live with their identity.