Membawang

Year
2022
Runtime
15 mins
Director
Dipali Gupta
Language
English
Subtitle
English
Category
Short Film
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SCREENING DATE & TIME:

10 SEPTEMBER, 2.00PM

Membawang means gossip in Malay and makcik bawang literally means ‘onion aunties’ who gather around the kitchen to prepare food and ‘gossip’. Historically, ‘gossip’ has been an integral part of the devaluation of women’s personalities and work, especially domestic work which we today identify as invisible labour. This video work aims to reclaim the term ‘gossip’ as an initiator of memory and producer of acquired knowledge and wisdom, creating collective identities. It is an attempt to subvert the patriarchal construction of female stereotypes (as malicious, envious and weak) and reflectively foreground feminine experiences and practices.

‘Membawang’ membawa maksud gosip dan ‘makcik bawang’ pula merujuk kepada sekumpulan wanita yang berkumpul di dapur sambil menyediakan makanan dan bergosip. Dalam sejarah, ’gosip’ telah menjadi bahagian penting dalam merendahkan keperibadian wanita dan kerja mereka, terutama sekali kerja-kerja domestik yang kita kenal pasti sebagai buruh tak nampak. Video ini bertujuan untuk menuntut semula istilah ‘gosip’ sebagai pemula memori dan penghasil pengetahuan dan kebijaksanaan, yang membentuk identiti kolektif. Ia sebuah usaha menumbangkan konstruksi patriarkal terhadap stereotaip wanita (sebagai berniat jahat, dengki dan lemah) dan sebuah renungan untuk mengangkat pengalaman dan amalan feminin.

NOTE: Dipali Gupta will be present during the post-screening discussion and Freedom Talk: Artistic Approaches to Tackling Social Stories.

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

Dipali Gupta is an artist whose work is an exploration of societal constructs from the domain of the feminine. Influenced by Foucauldian biopolitics, religious habituations, socio-political constructs, and psychosomatic effects, Dipali’s art practice questions the normative and endeavours to reclaim space by defying myths of domestication, reproduction, spectatorship, self and identity. She graduated from LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore and Goldsmiths, University of London, and currently lives in Kuala Lumpur.

*The making of these films were made possible through a production grant by ILHAM Gallery as part of its inaugural ILHAM Art Show, a triennial exhibition platform initiated to give artists in Malaysia the opportunity to experiment and make new work. The ILHAM Art Show 2022 is currently on at ILHAM Gallery, Kuala Lumpur until 23 October 2022