Jess Hodge

Bacha Bazi

Visual Arts, Drawing

My aim is to create a body of work that investigates the notion of ‘presence and absence’ with reference to the Afghan practice of ‘Bacha Bazi’. Following a continual line of inquiry in my practice, I am interested in exploring the power of drawing and portraiture to communicate emotion and provoke awareness of a concept through my methodology as an artist.

I am fascinated by the human ability to survive through techniques such as repression; a subliminal reaction to abuse, which I aim to reference through the technique of ‘presence and absence’ in my work.

I intend to create portraits of Afghan boys that allude to their situation of violence, without entirely depicting the men involved in their abuse. I will use only faint, non-detailed line-work to suggest the presence of these men, blocking them out, as the victims of this practice invariably do during their dance and inevitable rape. For these boys, their audience and abusers are always there, an ominous, faceless presence and mass of malevolence… but they are not there at the same time, forced into invisibility by the victim’s subconscious.

I have been inspired to portray these boys in full detail, communicating each boy as the main subject for my conceptual inquiry – in opposition to the indiscernible groups of men. I have been influenced by Vernon Ah Kee to draw realistic portraits of subjects that provoke an emotional audience reaction through detailed expression. Although these boys are usually forced to wear women’s clothing, make-up, bells and jewellery, I have chosen to portray each boy without such attire, to reinstate their value as an individual being, not as the costumed, pretty object they have come to exist as.

Images (4)

• 

  drawing, Visual Arts

• 

  drawing, Visual Arts

• 

  drawing, Visual Arts

• 

  drawing, Visual Arts

Comments

To make a comment you must be registered and logged in. What next? Either LOGIN, register as an EMPLOYER or register as a PERSON