Of Heart & Meaningfulness: Discovering Keerthana Kunnath

Mansi Arora | January 22, 2025 | Art

It was the famous 19th century French novelist Émile Zola, who said that an artist’s purpose on this earth is a simple one — to live out loud. A century and a quarter later, Keerthana Kunnath’s work rings loudly with her own self — of the past she has lived and the present as it passes before her eyes. These personal narratives portray the identity of a 28-year-old South Asian woman who grew up in Calicut, Kerala. They make her experiences a shared one and widen the boundaries of her own self as expressed through her work. Keerthana’s work explores a spectrum of themes – from unfolding new understandings of femininity, to highlighting what is usually hidden in a traditional society like that of rural Kerala; accentuating the beauty of tradition. It is a body of work that swerves a corner to reveal something ever-present yet unnoticed. “If I’m interested in something, I like to get deep into it”, she says.

(L-R) Intimate vignettes: From Keerthana’s lens

Keerthana attended the National Institute of Fashion Technology in New Delhi, India, after which she briefly pursued a career in jewellery design which led her to image-making (the process of creating visual representations through photography, design, or other artistic mediums). Refocusing her attention on photography while studying fashion photography at the London College of Fashion, she discovered her inclination towards fine art aspects of image-making.

“My art has become a medium to explore my personal life, past and upbringing. I feel these things are interrelated and photography has helped me in understanding myself. A lot of my work, even if it’s about someone else, has a bit of me in the project,” she says, responding with a thoughtful smile. Spending time in London, walking the streets alone in an alien country, Keerthana was led to her own past, creating space for her to explore all the pieces of the many things that puzzled her growing up.

“I think growing up in India as a woman, you have so many hurdles to cross – in terms of convincing someone, especially your family, on the kind of path you want to take. It’s not always the easiest thing to do.” This is perhaps why much of her work addresses themes like sexuality, mental health, and women taking space, viewed through the lens of a woman who tussles with the world around her over these ideas.

Frame of dissents: Not What You Saw disrupting South India’s feminine ideals

One of her well-known works is a photo series on the female bodybuilders of South India called Not What You Saw. The name is succinct and holds the bold declaration of agency, not only for the subjects she photographs but also for herself as a woman. She says, “One of the reasons I named it so is because I realised that growing up, I didn’t have many people I could pick as role models. Women grow up, reach a certain age, and often step into marriage and other life roles. I’m not being derogatory to them, but for me, it was uninspiring. So when I saw them, the first thing that occurred to me was – this is not the kind of girl you usually see.”

The women of Not What You Saw seem to represent a new realm of possibility, much like how superheroes do for little boys. “I think the female bodybuilders is a project where I started focusing on the women in South India. I took inspiration from old Malayalam cinema heroines and tried to turn that objectified gaze on its head,” says Keerthana. From styling to colours, every aspect of the images Keerthana captures is loaded with meaningful choices driven by intuition and intent. This juxtaposition of strong bodies with feminine, traditional wear in Not What You Saw is recreated in other projects, such as Joy Of Small Things and the one on her 88-year-old grandmother at the cusp of dementia.

Between columns and time: Naadu delves into the fragments of childhood memories from growing up in and around Beypore, Kerala.

She talks about her preference for the film format and the idea that the act of creating images is meditative. Keerthana not just finds her own past and memories in these projects, but also in the very process and materiality of the image. “I started enjoying the process of working in the darkroom, waiting for the pictures to come out — even though I’ve made stupid errors, like losing an entire roll of film or overexposing and underexposing shots, I still really enjoy it”.

Her series Naadu is an examination of the societal restrictions placed on life in rural South India as seen through the lens of a young girl who grew up there. Then there is Aval (her), a series in which she creates a new and inclusive version of the well-known, iconic Bollywood imagery. She does this by putting queer characters into the usual roles of the heteronormative hero and heroine.

As one traverses through her work, one realises that we are in an interesting time of witnessing the evolution of Indian arts and artists. From the art market crash of 2008, when fewer young people were choosing art and finding hope in such examinations of the world around and within them, to looking at artists like Keerthana, we can confidently see a trajectory of growth and promise. In the Indian art world, and in response to what she thinks would make it better, she has the perfect, and simplest of answers: for it to become more inclusive, more inviting to those who feel the calling. Even those who have not consciously thought of it as a viable option yet.

(L-R) From Naadu, norblacknorwhite, and Aval — a portraiture series reframing South Asian identity through moments of connection and self-expression.

Words by Mansi Arora

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