Artist
Paulina Tamara
Paulina Tamara is a Chilean-Norwegian artist based in Bergen. With an MFA in Photography from the University for the Creative Arts, London, her works address questions of gender creativity, (queer) culture, and the act of performing for the camera. Tamara’s interests lie in the space between femininity and masculinity; her ongoing archival project, The Others, portrays Norway’s queer community, whilst her Undress series offers an investigation into the female gaze – made collaboratively with a series of queer cis-woman. In recent years, her works have been exhibited at the likes of Copenhagen Photo Festival and Norway’s National Museum of Photography.
Marie&Bolette+Paulina
In what way can photography be used to explore the body as both the object and the subject, as gender identity and as stereotypes? This series is rooted in the private photographs made by the women's rights activists and photographers Marie Høeg (1866-1949) and Bolette Berg (1872-1944). In a commission by The National Museum of Photography in Norway, I was asked to reimagine these private images. The result of my research is a staged photomontage, challenging the rigid frame of the photographic structure. The one thing these photographers had in common is that they all used performance as a way of working with images.
The others
The concept of ‘the other’ is fundamental for humanity, in order for each of us to understand our relation to the outside world. Many queer, lesbian, gay and transgender people have experienced being seen and treated as ‘others’. In this series, I invite the queer community in Norway to perform in front of my camera; the studio, in the process, becomes a safe space where new representations of gender and orientation can emerge. Our brain loves patterns and similarities, and this is how we analyse the world around us. Being the other is not always a bad thing – some of us like to stand out, and can proudly claim the ‘other’ label. The project offers an opportunity for colourful dialogue in relation to gender issues, cultural identity and the relevance of art in social change.
Undress, looking at a queer woman undressing
Taking inspiration from Jemima Stehli´s photographic series, Strip, my project reworks the same concept through a queer lens. It sets out to question what differences exist between the gazes – is the gaze there to relate, or does it only objectify? Rather than focusing on the male gaze, this photographic experiment is about female reactions to a queer woman stripping. It´s an experimental study of the femme gaze, and how we look at each other. The sitter has total control over the image making process, wielding a remote control whilst the artist undresses in her studio. How would you look, if you were allowed to look, whilst knowing you were being looked at? Can one trust your own gaze?
The work of Dev Dhunsi is inspired by the migratory movement of his family from South Asia. His photo-installation Ankhon Dekhi (2022) touches upon the complexity of society with its many -scapes (landscape, soundscape, mediascape) and the materiality of his photographic approach spans different media from textile to sculptural installation. As a subject with a complex historiography and layered diasporic knowledge, he focuses on the sociological character of photography.
Paulina Tamara's commitment to photography as a means of representation is manifold. Her work comprises longstanding work with youth, exploring what they're coming to know in expressing their sexuality and gender freely. In Undress, looking at a queer woman undressing (2021), Tamara invited 15 people to watch her undressing while took pictures of the session with a trigger – an exercise in looking when both taking and giving complete control over the image.
Naina Helén Jåma is a photographer working for influential Norwegian newspapers and magazines. She started her career as a South Sámi mediator in Jåhkåmåhkke at the Ájtte Museum at 13, and continues to maintain a close relationship with traditional Sámi arts. In her project Vætnoe (2018–), Jåma speaks about traditional forms in living matter in Sámi people's livelihood, and how these forms and shapes continue to be part of the technological availability of today.
Ilavenil Vasuky Jayapalan is a dissenting multidisciplinary artist. As a child of the Tamil Tigers ,and the subject of echoes of the traumatic effects of civil war, he ponders a postcolonial take on propaganda. Among the works Jayapalan has shared for FUTURES is Hello freeends 4.1 (2022), a self-portrait crafted through AI manipulation, based on what a South Asian person looks like to a machine when fed bits of information.
Bobby Yu Shuk Pui grounds her work in the queer and genderless exploration of body politics, with a critical perspective on the social norms and constructs dictating reproduction and beautification – pushed to the forefront of the capitalist agenda in Asia, where Pui began her work. In the ongoing Genetic Salon (2020–), Put presents a web of video clips, exhibitions, and other material, leading the audience into a seductive imagination of the future.