Looking at Women’s Rights in Asian Developing Countries with a Humanitarian Lens

(Press Release sent by Cultural Connections on behalf of Hong Kong International Photo Festival.)

Looking at Women’s Rights in Asian Developing Countries with a Humanitarian Lens

Female Voices under Oppression, Women’s Empowerment Through Photography

Closing Exhibition of “Hong Kong International Photo Festival 2014”

 

(10 October, 2014) In many Asian developing countries, women’s rights and statuses are still largely suppressed. “Voice of Tacitness”, a major exhibition at the “Hong Kong International Photo Festival 2014”, brings to Hong Kong photographic works by female photographers in these places and which are mostly about women as well. The photographs focus on equal rights for women with a humanitarian touch. Obstacles for the participating artists are two-folded: photography scenes throughout the world are mostly dominated by men, and their voices are often suppressed and even lives threatened in their respective countries. As such, the works exhibited at “Voices of Tacitness” are doubly valuable.

The 13 participating artists come from 11 Asian developing countries and regions, including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Iran, Palestine, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Myanmar, Cambodia and the Philippines. Works from some of these countries are rarely seen in Hong Kong, and all works express through images voices of the female, showing concerns for not only gender equality but also bigger socio-political issues faced by women.

Participating Photographer	Country / Region	Works Exhibited	Content / Issues
Taslima Akhter	Bangladesh	The Life and Struggle of Garment Worker	Female workers earn a modest salary and live in poor conditions. They even have to face dangers such as the collapsed building that killed over a thousand in 2013.
Nazik Armenakyan	Armenia	The Stamp of Loneliness	Marginalised transgender sex workers face emptiness and despair behind their seemingly glamorous life.
Poulomi Basu	India	To Conquer Her Land	The first batch of female soldiers struggle in the patriarchal military culture.
Farida Batool	Pakistan	The Love Songs	The artist combines photos of her labour pain and hand drawings to reflect upon the romanticised patriotism.
Laura Boushnak	Palestine	I Read I Write	One-third of women in Yamen are denied of any education opportunities. The photographer has taken portraits of a few exceptional tertiary-educated women and documents their dreams.
Gohar Dashti	Iran	Slow Decay	Barely visible blood stains tell the damage done by war to everyday life.
Rena Effendi	Azerbaijan	House of Happiness	Behind the cheerful façade hide women forced into arranged marriages, drugs and prostitution.
Shadi Ghadirian	Iran	Miss Butterfly	The poetic fable in “Miss Butterfly” brings out struggles of personal fate under dictatorship.
Farzana Hossen	Bangladesh	Lingering Scars	Female victims who have suffered from acid attacks by their spouses or lovers cope with their physical and mental wounds and rebuild their lives.
Phyu Mon	Myanmar	Hope	Colourful digital collages symbolise the artist’s hope for Myanmar’s political reforms.
Sophal Neak	Cambodia	No Rice for Pot	Women in a rice-growing land have no rice to feed their families. The photographer questions women’s traditional familial roles through images.
Kat Palasi	Philippines	Filipino Comfort Women	The Philippines were under Japanese occupation during World War II, and women forced to become “comfort women” are now in their eighties. Their portraits will help us remember this chapter in history.
Farzana Wahidy	Afghanistan	Afghan Women	When the Taliban is swinging back, the faces in this series document lives of Afghan women under violent oppression.

The curatorial team says, “‘Voices of Tacitness’ introduces the works of 13 female photographers from several Asian countries. They live in a world where women’s freedom of expression is restricted due to gender inequality; sometimes even their personal safety is at risk. With differing visual languages and narrative styles, these photographers present an array of works addressing various social issues. Their personal experiences and social scenery are interwoven in these works.”

Chairman of the Hong Kong International Photo Festival, Mr. Alfred Ko, talks about how the exhibition fits into the festival’s theme of “Now Becoming Then”, “Injustice against women exists not only back ‘then’ in history, but prevails in many developing countries ‘now’.”

As co-organiser of the exhibition, Executive Director of the Hong Kong Arts Centre, Miss Connie Lam, says, “Photography as a strongly impactful art medium lays important contexts in local and global aspects. This year’s exhibition showcases the 13 female artists selected hail from 11 developing Asian countries where the social status of women is heavily oppressed. Aesthetically, those photographs at a certain extend are portraying the society and the people in a super-realistic way, at the meantime, encourage us to pay more attention to what is happening in other corners of the world.”

 

Notes to Editors:

Voice of Tacitness: Asian Women Photography

The curatorial blueprint of “Voice of Tacitness” focuses on the cutting-edge creativity and generous humanism demonstrated in the artists’ creation. It introduces the works of 13 female photographers from 11 Asian countries where women’s freedom of expression is restricted due to gender inequality; sometimes even their personal safety is at risk. With differing visual languages and narrative styles, these photographers present an array of works addressing various social issues. Their personal experiences and social scenery are interwoven in these works.

 

Date: 19 October – 2 November

Venue: 4/F – 5/F Pao Galleries and 3/F Experimental Gallery, Hong Kong Arts Centre

Time: 10:00 – 20:00

 

Curatorial Director:

Chun Wai

 

Curators:

Taslima Akhter

Carol Chow Pui Ha

Ellen Leung Hoi Yan

 

Participating Artists:

Taslima Akhter (Bangladesh)

Nazik Armenakyan (Armenia)

Poulomi Basu (India)

Farida Batool (Pakistan)

Laura Boushnak (Palestine)

Gohar Dashti (Iran)

Rena Effendi (Azerbaijan)

Shadi Ghadirian (Iran)

Farzana Hossen (Bangladesh)

Phyu Mon (Myanmar)

Sophal Neak (Cambodia)

Kat Palasi (Philippines)

Farzana Wahidy (Afghanistan)

 

Exhibition Co-ordinator:

Ho Po Shan

 

Extended Event – Voice of Tacitness: Asian Women Photography Symposium

Date: 18 October 2014

Time: 14:30 – 17:30

Venue: Agnès B. Cinema, Hong Kong Arts Centre

(First Come First Served)

 

Chun Wai (Curatorial Director)

Born in Hong Kong, Chun Wai is the course coordinator and lecturer of the Postgraduate Diploma in Photography in the HKU SPACE. He is also a photographer and curator based in Hong Kong. He received the Diplôme National Supérieur D’expression Plastique (DNSEP), an advanced diploma in Visual Arts, from the Minister of Culture in France. He subsequently opened his own studio there and pursued an artistic course of integrating the essence of Western contemporary art with traditional Chinese aesthetics. The photographic perspective of Chun lies in his humanistic vision and macro-historical framework in interpreting the changing world. His project covers a wide area in the region, including Hong Kong and different parts of Asia. Every appealing moment captured in his camera reflects his concern for poverty, and the victims of wars across different cultural and economic backgrounds. The impact of global climate changes on human survival is another topic he cares about. In 2011, Chun established Health In Action, an international NGO, to promote humanitarianism services in the Asian countries.

 

Taslima Akhter (Curator)

A former president of Bangladesh Students’ Federation, Taslima Akhter is currently a lecturer of photojournalism at Pathshala (South Asian Media Institute) in Dhaka. Now she is working as a coordinator of Bangladesh Garment Workers Solidarity. She completed MSS and M. Phil in public administration in the University of Dhaka and graduated in photography from Pathshala. She turned to documentary photography after many years as an activist with workers’ and women’s rights organizations, which she continues to work with. For her documentary photography is a continuation of her activism. As a photographer, she likes to work on issues relating to gender, the environment and culture, as well as exploring spaces of social discrimination. The TIME Magazine has selected Akkter’s photo “Final Embrace” as one of top ten photos of the year 2013. Her work was exhibited in the USA and China. She won the Best Photography Award at the 5Th Dali International Photography Exhibition in China in 2013.

 

Carol Chow Pui Ha (Curator)

Carol Chow is a lecturer and a researcher. She obtained her PhD in Communication (2012) from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Master of Visual Arts from Hong Kong Baptist University (2014). Seeing image as a double-edge sword of ideological apparatus and resistant tool, Carol has endeavored to unravel power contestations of different groups beneath media images as well as in the everyday life, but also to work on social photography and documentary project to represent the lives of the underprivileged. Her recent study examines lives of migrant workers in liquid modernity. In 2013, she co-curated “Asian Female Photographers Exhibition” for 5th Dali International Photo Festival, attempting to generate public understanding and dialogues on the oppressed voice of women in developing countries through the representation of women photographers’ work from the region.

 

Ellen Leung Hoi Yan (Curator)

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Ellen Leung went to France to pursue her love for and studies of arts after graduating from the Fine Arts Department of The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her undergraduate studies also included a one-year exchange study programme at the  York University, Toronto. Leung started to participate in group and solo exhibitions during her studies, including “Video Circle”—video installation by collective artists at the University of Science and Technology of Hong Kong; “My Own Reality”—solo exhibition at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre (City Festival 99); “Burning 30 Moons Just to Tell You a Story”—installation and performance at the Oil Street. She had worked as photographer for a French rock band and as program assistant for a vintage cinema in France. Afterwards, she worked in marketing and coordination at three art galleries based in France, Hong Kong and Shanghai respectively. In the past decade, she has established a strong foothold in the marketing field, specializing in event management and brand development. But, all the while, Leung has remained active in pursuit of her love of arts.

 

The Hong Kong International Photo Festival was first launched in 2010, comprising a series of exhibitions in different areas of photography, covering a wide spectrum temporally and geographically. Apart from the biennial Festival, the Hong Kong International Photo Festival Flare is organized in alternate years, in between the Festival proper. An array of exciting events in promotion of photographic culture is being held concurrently with the Festival proper and the Festival Flare. Exhibitions and events are held at different venues and art spaces throughout the city, creating a photographic ethos and fostering the art and culture of photography in Hong Kong. Through collaboration with different photography organizations in Asia, we aim to uphold Hong Kong’s status as the hub for exchange and sharing of creative ideas, technical knowledge and valuable experience in photography.

The Hong Kong International Photo Festival is organized by the Hong Kong Photographic Culture Association, currently chaired by Alfred Ko Chi Keung. Other founding members include: anothermountainman, Almond Chu Tak Wah, Joseph Fung Hon Kee, Simon Go Man Ching, Edwin Lai Kin Keung, Lau Ching Ping, Leong Ka Tai, Ng Sai Kit, Bobby Sham Ka Ho, Shima Eleven, So Hing Keung, Leon Suen Shu Kwan, Ducky Tse Chi Tak, Tse Ming Chong, Blues Wong Kai Yu, Ki Wong Suk Ki, Wong Wo Bik, Vincent Yu Wai Kin.

Hong Kong International Photo Festival 2014 Major Exhibitions:

1. “Works by Master” – In Light of India: Photography by Raghu Rai
   World-renowned Indian photographer Raghu Rai is one of the very few Asian members of Magnum Photos. Through his lenses, multi-layered and intense images of the old and new India are captured.
2. “Asian Vision” – Voice of Tacitness: Asian Women Photography
   A collection from women photographers from over ten developing countries across Asia, ranging from Afghanistan, Azerbaijan to Armenia, who strived to use their cameras to record and illustrate the injustice in women’s lives from their countries under great repression.
3. “In Search of Both Regions” – Tradition/anti-Tradition: Departed from Hong Kong “Photo Pictorial” Magazine…
   Through the retrospect of Hong Kong Photo Pictorial which was first published fifty years ago, “Photo Pictorial” is the only local photography magazine that could be circulated to Mainland China. With its 16-page insert showcasing the avant-garde photography of Hong Kong, the magazine has influenced local and Mainland photographers across generations.
4. “Hong Kong Contemporary” – Twin Peaks: Contemporary Hong Kong Photography
   Eight local photographers each showcase two outstanding series of works, which demonstrates the brilliant and a wide range of practices in Hong Kong photography.

Apart from the four major exhibitions, there will be two master talks. Martin Parr, also a Magnum photographer, is famous for his satirical, humorous social documentary. He will discuss his long career in photography and explains changes in his practices over time. Ven. Chang Lin, previously the renowned portrait photographer Alain Yip, will share his philosophy of “Zen in photography” after embracing his monastic life.