Né a Calcutta en 1953 et diplômé de Littérature Anglaise en 1973, Naveen Kishore débute comme concepteur d’éclairage scénique. En 1982, il fonde Seagle Books, publication sur les arts et les médias orientée sur les études de film, art et culture.
Kishore se tourne vers la photographie et montre des acteurs travestis du théâtre de Manipuri, Bengale et Punjab. Il photographie plus particulièrement Chapal Bhaduri, un travesti du théâtre populaire bengali appelé Jatra, dans un projet intitulé Performing the Goddess. Certaines de ces images ont voyagé en Inde, au Royaume-Uni et aux Etats-Unis avec l’exposition intitulée Woman/Goddess. Une série de photo sur les éboueurs du Bombay et le trafic des jeunes filles à Chiang Mai, Thaïlande ont fait partie de la Fondation Ashoka. Le projet Paris:Music récemment conclu sera présenté en Mars 2008. Kishore vit et travaille à Calcutta.
Watching Kali or Song for Kali
My mother’s image by error with clay I want to shape.
This Ma is not earth’s girl, vain toil, with clay I sweat.
In hand a sword, ’round neck cut heads, is she earth-born,
Can mere clay put out mind’s burning, as she does?
I’ve heard her hue is black, that black lights up the world.
Can black paint slapped on clay come close to Mother-black?
My Mother has three eyes: sun, moon and holy fire.
Is there an artisan, to build me such a one?
Evil-destroying Kali, she is not just clay and straw.
She’ll take away mind’s dark. Show Proshad her Kali-face.
Ram Proshad (c. 1720–1781).
Translated from the Bengali by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak.
. . . at the other end of the bloodied sacrifical block, hot gold tongue thrust out, trembling with the rays of outer space, three-eyed woman with loosened hair, world-lighting black, Mother naked as the day, terrible beautiful Kali. Images of divinity standing cheek by jowl with ordinary daily-lived humanity . . . women washing clothes, children playing, cars passing by, food being cooked . . .This series of images taken in 2005 at Kumartuli, Calcutta city’s clay quarter where the men make Gods. Self-taught artisans shape the clay from the Hoogly, tributary of the holy river, Ganga, into Gods and Goddesses for the annual Kali festival. Year after year. Generations after generation of artisans. These clay idols are worshiped with great reverence and then immersed in the river after one day of worship.
Born in Calcutta in 1953, with a degree in English literature in 1973, Naveen Kishore began as a light designer for the theater. In 1982, he founded Seagle Books, a publication on arts and media focusing on film, art and culture studies. Kishore then turned to photography using female impersonators from Manipuri, Bengali and Punjabi theatre practices. He focused particularly on Chapal Bhaduri, a female impersonator of the Bengali folk theatre called Jatra in a photographic project entitled "Performing the Goddess". Some of these pictures were exhibited as a part of a show entitled Woman/Goddess which traveled all over India and to the United Kingdom and the United States. A series of photo features on the garbage collectors of Bombay and girl trafficking in Chiang Mai, Thailand were shown as a part of the Ashoka Foundation. A recently concluded Paris:Music project will be on view from March 2008. Kishore lives and works in Calcutta.
Naveen Kishore
