User:Armancesherman/gap analysis

Tejal Shah

 * What is the title of the article in which you identified a gap. If no article exists at all, what should the title be?

Tejal Shah


 * Document the gap you found, describe how you identified it, and analyze its impact on knowledge.

On the previous assignment, the Visual Analysis Paper, I wrote about Mequitta Ahuja’s work and initially, I wanted to write about her for this assignment as well. However, I saw that she already had a Wikipedia page, so I went back to the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum website and found the brilliant artist, Tejal Shah instead. I chose Tejal Shah because I found it interesting that she focuses much of her work on sexuality and the LGBT community in India. Upon searching her name in Wikipedia, I saw that she does not have a page yet, but I think she deserves one. She was briefly mentioned in a couple of curators’ Wikipedia pages, including Nancy Adajania and Thomas Trevor, simply because they incorporated her work into their exhibits. Tejal Shah is also mentioned in Indian singer/actress Suman Sridhar’s Wikipedia page because of Sridhar’s work with performance art and sound design in Shah’s piece, Between the Waves. In addition, Tejal Shah’s video of the Calcutta Pride March in 2004 was referenced in the Wikipedia page titled, “Timeline of South Asian and diasporic LGBT history.” I noticed there is a Wikipedia page for Feminist Art and even for the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, but nothing on Tejal Shah or any queer or feminist Indian artist really. Tejal Shah deserves a page of her own because her work explores the intersectionality of those marginalized for their race, sexual orientation, and/or gender. As a queer Indian artist, Shah’s work is very controversial in that she is presenting art about the underrepresented LGBTQ Indian community, even though it is so rejected in Indian society.


 * Propose a paragraph of new or substantially edited content based on reliable sources. (If you are editing existing content, post the current version along with your edited version, and clearly mark which is which.)

Tejal Shah is a queer feminist artist from India. Shah was born in 1979 in Bhilai, but grew up in Chhattisgarh, India. She moved to Mumbai in 1995, where she now lives and works. At age 17, Shah came out as a lesbian, which has since hugely influenced her artwork. In addition, feminism has influenced her work by giving her the ability to question truth and history.

After receiving her BA from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in 2000, she went on to receive her Master’s in Fine Arts from Bard College in New York.

Tejal Shah works with video, photography, performance, sound, and installation. She focuses much of her work on gender, sexuality, identity, religion, and politics. Shah often challenges Indian society’s idea of the gender binary by using transgender or transsexual subjects for her pieces. Her art analyzes various relations of power and walks the line between documentary and fiction. Furthermore, Shah uses transitions between different mediums to reflect the fluidity of gender and sexuality. She uses her work to open up a dialogue for those who are marginalized by society.

Tejal Shah has exhibited many solo shows all around the world. In 2003, her show “Tomb of Democracy” debuted at Gallery Alexander Ochs in Berlin, Germany. One of her first LGBTQ-focused shows, “What Are You?” at Thomas Erben Gallery, New York and Galerie Mirchandani and Steinreuke, Mumbai, received mixed reviews from the public. Other solo shows included “The Incidental Self” at Barbara Gross Galerie in Munich and “There’s a Spider Living Between Us” at La Centrale Galerie Powerhouse, Montreal in 2011. In addition to these and other solo shows, Tejal Shah also did a joint exhibition in 2010 with Han Bing at Gallery Espace in New Delhi called “A Cry from the Narrow Between.” Shah is also the co-organizer and participant of an international artist residency program, “Current InterruptUs,” at Kashi Art in Kochi, India. In 2003, she co-founded India’s first film festival, Larzish, which celebrates the spectrum of gender and sexuality. In 2007, Shah was invited to speak at the Brooklyn Museum in New York at the Global Feminisms exhibition as part of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art Forum. Today, Tejal Shah is still creating art, currently working on a project in Goa, India.


 * List the reliable sources that could be used to improve this gap. (You can use the Cite tool from the editing toolbar above to input and format your sources.)