(Left to right) Curators Sarah Melsens, Ishita Shah and Meenakshi Jayan
| Photo Credit: C Madan Mohan
Expanding Agency, a research initiative of architectural historian Kathleen James Chakraborty from the University of Dublin reaches Bangalore International Centre, Domlur, with a five-day travelling exhibition this September.The exhibition presents the stories and contributions of historically underrepresented and unrepresented women and racialised communities across the globe, and includes the narratives of Indian women from the 20th century. Told through the medium of photographs, drawings, archives and written narratives, they tell the untold stories of modern architecture.Beyond exhibiting a few key historical narratives from their archives, Expanding Agency and Archival Silences also hosted a series of workshops and panel discussions inviting participants from across Bengaluru to contribute from their own experiences and narratives.Sarah Melssen, co-curator of the event, recalls how her labour workshop on September 5, saw participants from various backgrounds including architects, architectural historians, researchers, social workers and NGOs engage with women construction workers.The travelling exhibitionThis initiative took the form of a dual exhibition curated by Ishita Shah and Meenakshi Jayan from Women of Vasthukala Archives project as well as Sarah Melsens as Architectural Historian from the Omitted from History project. Drawing from multiple research projects, Expanding Agency and Archival Silences focused on specific fields such as gender, race and dissemination. Their central intention is to explore the intricacies of gender in the built environment which transcends women in various roles and their contributions to the field.Ishita says, “There is a marked absence of women’s labour whether she is a construction worker or a practitioner. It might not just be a lack of representation in the archives; women themselves do not realise that what they are creating is a knowledge system.”And herein lies the reason behind this exhibition, “to bring forward the experiences that reflect how women have actually shaped architecture as a profession.”As one looks around the showcased narratives, the story of Sister Nesta Fitzgerald of Lombard Convent pops up as one of the first women to become a qualified architect in Ireland. Her story is followed by that of Grace Cope amid discussions between psychology and architecture. And Lin Huiyin who travelled to the University of Pennsylvania from China to study architecture in 1924, is followed by various other overlooked stories from different parts of the world.
