The Lady Excusing Her Love Bites As Cat Scratches
Gayathiri Ganeshan, Hawra Harianawala, Mehzun Rub, Rashmi Varma, Taha Yasin, and Tazneen Qauyyum (director), The Lady excusing her love bites as cat scratches, 2003, performance art.
Performing for LAL: Rose Kazi, Nick Murrey
A one night experimental performative presentation at 401 Richmond during Artsweek 2003.
By creating a live version of a 17th century Indian miniature painting in the style of the 19th century European tableau vivant, SAVAC artists investigated the concept of painting by simultaneously breaking it down into its various components and perspectives through performance. The painting was reproduced with theatrical backdrops and props painted in miniature style with original costumes. The painting was staged with minimal movement, such that we observe carefully the gesture and relations between the performers and the consequences of those relations and the context. Live electronic music by LAL accentuated the action and the stillness creating a tension between past and present, painting and performance, east and west. The performance took place in the courtyard of 401 Richmond reintroducing SAVAC to its neighbors old and new.
The painting
The lady excusing her love bites as cat scratches
This painting is from the Rasamanjari series from the miniature paintings of the Basholi school, commonly known as Pahari School, India
Dated between: 1660-70
Actual size: 32.5x 23.5cms.
Collection: Victoria and Albert Museum (No.I.S. 20-1958)
The story
It's the year 1664. The emperor of India is Aurangzeb Alamgir.
The ladies are from the court of Raja Sangram Pal (r. 1635 -73) the Ruler of Basholi, the area comprised a group of seventy four villages,(now part of Jammu Kashmir state)
The ladies (Gaya and Tazeen) are friends, but Gaya has a lover, she secretly meets in the garden when no one is around. Her lover, Taha, disguises himself as a bird and waits for her at the lotus pond. Later when Tazeen is suspicious and asks Gaya about her whereabouts and the marks of love bites, Gaya conveniently blames the pet cat, Mehzun, for scratching her.
