I Would Rather Be A Lover Than A Fighter

I Would Rather Be A Lover Than A Fighter

A textile installation by Nadin Reschke @1 ShantiRoad Studio Gallery, Bangalore

In October/November 2019 I stayed 5 weeks in 1 Shanti Road as part of the BangaloREsidency by the Goethe Institut. In the final exhibition “I would rather be a lover than a fighter” I drew from my own experiences in the city of Bangalore as a starting point to have conversations with women about their involvement in the city. I focused on how they navigate gendered spaces and roles within familial environments and employ personal tactics to deal with the city. The work also touches on issues and concerns of different sexualities, gender- identities and sexual violence against women and gender minorities.

I employed the traditional saree as a sculptural material and collaborated with a local screen printer to print the individual narratives as text onto the textiles, emphasizing the origins of the two words – textile and text – which come from the same Latin origin meaning “to weave.” The work has culminated into a textile installation bringing together a pluralistic view that recognises gendered realities, which in turn hopes for possibilities of change in the way we construct our realities and the way we shape the cities we live in.

The work has been realized with the contributions of many people. I would like to give special thanks to all the women who made this project happen, especially Avnit, Shrunga, Devi, Arshi, Mona, Shilok, Anisha, Harshita, Sandhya, Anitha, Siri and Anna and all the others. Special thanks to Navrang for the screen printing, everyone at 1 ShantiRoad for creating such a great place to feel home and of course the Goethe- Institute for their support and constant help in everything that was needed in this project.