Poulomi Basu: Eco-Feminism. In Conversation with Charlotte Jansen
Poulomi Basu, ‘From the series Centralia 2010 – 2020’ © the Artist Courtesy TJ Boulting.
Following her solo presentation with TJ Boulting at this year’s fair of her series ‘Centralia’, please join Poulomi Basu in conversation with arts journalist and author Charlotte Jansen. Centralia is also currently shortlisted for the prestigious Deutsche Borse award at The Photographers’ Gallery. Basu’s presentation at Photo London focussed on eco feminism, which the transmedia artist will discuss with Jansen, in relation to a rich and far-ranging practice that includes moving image, film, performance and VR. Basu will give insight into her approach and issues in representing violence, environmental and climate justice and gender inequality in her work.
Poulomi Basu is an Indian transmedia artist and activist, much of whose work addresses the normalisation of violence against marginalised women. Her photobook Centralia about the conflict between the Indian state and the Maoist People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army is shortlisted for the 2021 Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize currently on show at The Photographers’ Gallery, London and won Rencontres d’Arles Discovery Award Jury Prize 2020. Basu received the Royal Photographic Society’s Hood Medal for the series Blood Speaks about the Nepalese practice of Chhaupadi in 2020. Blood Speaks placed menstrual taboos and blood politics on the international agenda resulting in a major policy change: the Nepalese government criminalised the practice of menstrual exile which is resulting in the death and rape of women. Blood Speaks was also selected for the Sundance New Frontiers Lab (2017) and presented at SXSW in 2019. Her work has been internationally exhibited and she won the Magnum Emergency Fund in 2016 and was a Magnum Foundation Social Justice Fellow in 2012.
Charlotte Jansen is the author of two books on photography: Girl on Girl: Art and Photography in the Age of the Female Gaze (LKP, 2017) and Photography Now (Tate/Ilex, 2021). She is also the presenter of the Dior Talks podcast series on the female gaze. In 2019 she co-curated Birth at TJ Boulting with Hannah Watson, featuring Poulomi Basu’s powerful VR work Blood Speaks. Jansen is currently working on a publication of Birth with Trolley Books.