Art matters

From a childhood of pain to paving a path for the transgender community, Kalki Subramaniam has used art to transform her angst into a gift to empower others, writes Smitha Murthy

Kalki with her ‘Frida Art’

Artist. Poet. Author. Gender activist. Speaker. Entrepreneur. Kalki Subramaniam moves between her many roles in life with ease. Born in Pollachi near Coimbatore, Kalki describes her journey through life as not one of pain but one of joy. A journey with hurdles, yes, as a transgender woman, but one that has also brought warmth, grace, acceptance, and love along the way. Kalki, who has two Master’s degrees, runs the Sahodari Foundation, which has been working to empower transgender people for the last 12 years. Her TransHearts Art Project uses art as a transformative healing process for the transgender community, conducting art workshops in different cities in India. Kalki spoke about art, India’s path to true diversity, the power of art, and her new book.

How much progress has India made in accepting and celebrating diversity?

I am happy about the developments in India in the last ten years, upholding LGBTQI rights legally. Hundreds of LGBTQI persons are coming out to their families and workplaces. We still have to go a long way to establish our civil rights to marry, adopt children and create a family of our own. Family inclusion and acceptance are of prime importance for all of us LGBTQI+ people.

You have said, “Our country is vibrant with a hidden treasure of stories and talent from the hijra and transgender community.” How are you using art to enable greater support for the transgender community?

My life is a testimony of how art can transform and heal a person. It was the practice of art, of creating drawings and writing poetry that saved me from ending my life. You don’t need to be an artist to create art, to practice creativity. You just create things with what is available to you. Art naturally came to me during my teen years, a gift of the divine. It has healed me. Likewise, thousands of transgender people could benefit through the practice of art in healing their past wounds and transforming themselves into humans with powerful voices. It is my dream to set up a museum of art on India’s queer community. I wanted to archive and document queer folk and religious tales, art, and music from the LGBTQI community and promote it for public viewing and academic research.

The Red Wall Project is building up to be a powerful movement. Tell us about that.

The Red Wall documents the stories of the transgender community, particularly the abuses we experience because of our gender expressions. Transgender persons write their stories on paper and place their red-soaked palm on their written testimonials to show their resistance and rage against gender-based violence. With their consent, we place these testimonials for public viewing, majorly in academic institutions and galleries for people to read, understand and empathise. And also to encourage them to be our allies in resisting violence and hatred against non-binary people. The project is evolving into one of dialogues and discussions, addressing gender-based violence for social justice.

And then, we have the Sahodari Foundation itself. What led you to activism through art?

The struggles I had to endure as a gender non-conforming kid and the incidents of ostracisation and discrimination faced by my transgender friends led me to found the Sahodari Foundation. As a child, pen and paper were all I had to express myself. I wrote poetry and drew art — the visuals of my future. It made me immensely happy and helped me to stand up for myself and deal with suicidal thoughts. In 2016, I introduced art to the Sahodari Foundation. We have organised several travelling art workshops for the transgender community in South India. We use the art for activism and livelihood. So many transgender people continue to benefit from it. Through our Red Wall project, I encourage and train them to be activists.

How does the Sahodari Foundation work now through this seemingly never-ending pandemic and repeated lockdowns?

We offer support, especially financial assistance, to transgender people whose livelihood has been severely affected by Covid-19. Our priority has been seniors and differently-abled transgender persons. We are running a crowdfunding campaign on Milaap.org to raise funds.

In 2011, you played the lead role in the Tamil movie, ‘Narthaki’. You have been a passionate advocate of using storytelling to promote understanding and healing. How do you encourage transgender people to share their voices, stories, and pain?

Narthaki was a beautiful film, a fictional biographical story of a transgender woman struggling to hold her life with dignity. More than 40 transgender women were cast in that, and the film shows our community with dignity. After all, I live that life too. I see them as mirror images of my soul. Many in the transgender community do not have basic documentation such as their self-identified name and gender. This not only pulls them out of government social security schemes but also, right now, the Covid-19 vaccine. Hundreds of transgender people are unable to get relief funds from the government and have not been able to get vaccinations. Not having an Aadhaar card is the biggest challenge. A majority of transgender persons don’t hold any supportive documents to get this.

In 2014, you released your first book in Tamil — ‘Kuri Aruthean’. And now, you have another book coming up — ‘We Are Not The Others’.

We Are Not The Others is a collection of my poems, illustrations, monologues, art, and essays. Through this collection, I tell parts of my story and the stories of people like me through my voice. Some of the poems in this book are translations of Thamizh poems from my earlier book Kuri Aruthean. We Are Not The Others was conceived during the Covid-19 lockdown.