Sukanya Deb

Sukanya Deb is a curator based in Gurgaon. She has earlier interned at the Nazar Foundation and GallerySke in Delhi and at The Cube in London and is currently working with the Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art (FICA) in Delhi. This grant enables Sukanya to create hypertext poetry/ fiction based on an exploration of the place of pornography and erotic imagery in India from past to contemporary times.

Pornography and erotic imagery have always been part of Indian culture, though much tabooed to discuss and indulge in. However, in the recent times, the only conversation surrounding pornography is that of moral righteousness. Pornography is seen as a moral calamity even as it is also being consumed over mobile phones in parliamentary sessions. On the other hand, there is a seemingly permanent ban on porn in India. This denotes a culture of shame, yet plays into the arguably natural, tendency of people to indulge in the same for personal pleasure. Such a tendency for secrecy has produced enlivened habits and cult-like iterations around the consumption of pornography, Sukanya observes in her proposal.  

Through this project, Sukanya seeks to research into the multiplicities of erotic and desirous images through a semi-historical overview of erotic imagery in India. These images range from those created under royal patronage to the more recent images in the digital sphere. The focus of the research will be on contemporary understandings of terms such as ‘erotic’ and ‘sexual’, particularly from the point of view of female and queer pleasure. This research will result in hypertext poetry or fiction. The form of hypertext literature is a post-internet experimental literary phenomenon that is hardly in use due to rapid changes in technology, denoting a pre-Web 2.0 world. Rudimentary in form, the hypertext poem or fiction allows for multiplicity in perspectives and non-linearity.

The hypertext poetry/fiction and a selection of erotic images from across time periods will be presented on a website and as a foldable booklet. Sukanya’s deliverables to IFA from this project will be the hypertext poetry/ fiction, copies of the booklet and the website downloaded on a drive.

This grant is made possible under the special initiative 25x25, with support from lead donor Kshirsagar-Apte Foundation, and philanthropy partners, Titan Company Limited, Priya Paul, and Sethu Vaidyanathan.