Gauri Gill: Acts of Appearance

A collaborative portrait of the fantastic masks created and worn by Indian papier-mache artists

Delhi-based photographer Gauri Gill's (born 1970) project Acts of Appearance began in 2014 at a village of Adivasi papier-mache artists from the Kokna and Warli tribes in the Palghar district--one of the most impoverished areas in Maharashtra, India. Gill's collaborator-subjects are renowned for their papier-mache objects, which include traditional sacred masks made for the yearly Bohada procession. These masks depict living beings with the physical characteristics of people, animals or valued objects. In the photographs gathered in this volume, the artists as well as other local volunteers engage in everyday village activities while wearing masks crafted specifically for this body of work. As a result, a fantastic range of symbolic and playful scenarios and narratives coalesce.