Porn Star in India

Some people will find all of these images offensive and possibly arousing.

The Sword In The Stone

During my 3 months in India, I sent over 90 indecent postcards, got through 3 Kama Sutra Books, 2 books on historical monuments, 5 glue sticks and 3 rolls of Sellotape. 

 For a country famed for the Kama Sutra and temples so intricately carved with all manor of marvelous sexual endeavors, Indians are frighteningly repressed. Even holding hands is disrespectful/looked down upon. There is no affection, no obvious love. Arranged marriage is the norm and so is finding babies in bushes born out of wedlock. As an Indian woman, your duty is to serve your husband, keep quite, look good and do what you are told ('*@%$**!*') Not something I'm used to.

'Alfresco Pest-o' 

A western female traveler is a very curious thing. The only reference and context they have seen woman in is through porn. Apparently that's a fact and any item of clothing that even suggests that you have a female figur definitely means you are a porn star and it is ok to accost you in the street. Wearing traditional dress dosen't work either-Everyone wants to talk to you and if they can't talk they stare. So I decided to give them something to stare about.

I would sit there boldly cutting completely legitimate erotic images out of the Kama Sutra and turned them into statement mobile artworks.  It caused quite a stir. Many many stares, many glares. The people that were brave enough to speak said I was crazy. It' not right to depict the gods/monuments/sex and kings in such terrible ways-It's immoral-

'Ladies at Leisure' 

I didn't understand. I thought that paper, scissors and glue was fair game considering the amount of literature published on the Kama Sutra- But no Indian would touch the stuff.

'LOOK MUMMY! NO HANDS!'

'Still Life'

A horrible thing happened to me. I was searching for medicine alone on the back streets of Udipur, a nice, respectable town which was relatively tourist friendly. Mildly in the distance, a group of nine year olds blocked my path. I could see in their eyes, half smirks and twitching fingers that something was about to go down. They started to approach, gathering speed and as each one ran past, they grabbed my crotch.

'Any Holes A Goal'

 Luckily I was prepared for the attack and had pre-rolled my guide book, beating them off one by one with solid intensity. They were children and here I was, a grown woman trying to defend my dignity. It was basically attempted sexual assault and these children thought it was acceptable/funny to do so. I wasn't even wearing anything inciting.

 I was alone, female and white-I was fair game.

'The Emporia's New Clothes'
I had a lot of bad dreams. Some of my worst- I even woke up having panic attacks- crying, screaming and hyperventlating.  Each time I was being molested but no one was helping me. No one at all. This was made worse by the brutal rape in Delhi. Terrifying as most of the jounernys I was taking were night buses and long train rides complealy dominated by males. The amount of woman requesting a gun licence went up 500% but only 8% were granted- Because they were woman. Women can't be trusted. Yeah-WE can't be trusted. But our fanny's won't fill themselves.  

'Have You Seen My Other Half?'

 It's funny how quickly you learn when you are being followed. This happened to me a few times. It was horrible but I made it fun. Fun loosing myself in Indias chaos. Hunting the hunter. 

'Naughty Krishna'
In Indian comic books Krishna is famous for liking milk. I took the pot of milk away and added a penis.  

'Slipping One In At The Taj'
Just to lighten the mood a little: This is one of my favourite postcards. It has always been a great dream of mine to visit the Taj Mahal. I love romance and the story behind this was just heart bursting.  I was so excited to see it I cried  instantly and bought 10 snow-dome keys rings from a man with no legs.

'Indian Gardens'

'In-between A Rock & A Hard Place' 

This is a very small selection of collages I sent. Very very small. More can be found 

HERE

I guess these are some sort of personal revolt against how sexually stifled and backward india is in it's approach to sex. How everything is hidden, everything is repressed, how bloody awful it is for woman sometimes, most of the time to be fair . I decided to post it out there for the world to see in some silent 2D protest.

 

If you haven't been tracking my holidays, the postcard project started with the most terrible family holiday in 2011: PRISON IN PARIDSE which then carried on into  Switzerland 2012 and also Croatia but I have no evidence of this. These postcards were my only escape. They are supposed to be funny, slightly riske but in some country's deeply offensive as well as highly illegal. Some never make it through the boarder, others are so good they get swiped on the way. This hobby has cost me a small fortune in money and time but I love them. I like thinking there is a little part of me pinned to a wall somewhere with someone I have never met.

I breifly visited Thiland for two weeks: Here's what I got up to.

   

'Mooning Monks' Thailand 2013

I was struck by how 'white' every young girl, woman and man child was looking. Disturbingly ghostly, like something truly awful had happened to them. And I guess something truly awful has happened.  To be beautiful you must bleach your skin. To be beautiful you must be something other than what you are. I was amazed by the ridiclious amounts of bleaching products on the sheleves of every local shop- They had everything under the sun to get the supremacists glow. It was utterly shattering to think that the majority of people that buy into this stuff think they have to change to be something, to be a worthwhile human being, even if it means rubbing lambs placenta over themselves day in, day out. 

Anyway- This young woman stuck me as being piercingly white.  And thus apparently deeply beautiful. How could a holy man resist? 

Resurrection

Another postcard I didn't send because of the legal implications. When I first visited thailand I didn't relaise the things I was creating could have landed me in jail. Defacing anything holy or king like carries a hefty prison sentence or certain death. I'd avoided it once before, I couldn't risk it again.   

 This reminds me of my father for no reason other than he claims to have invented the 'zorb'. Though he never made any proto-type or put anything to paper as far as I've seen. 

'One Track Mind'

Fisting.

Western culture os shafting everything. 

*Note to self that's very public: Being away for so long made me actually think about what I'm doing and why I'm doing it. Turns out it's all a bit deep and lots of times I thought maybe art in general is something I want to move away from as the 'messages' I put out there are dark and uncomfortable. They often make you feel disturbed (challenged is probably a better word).

I like to think I'm not disturbed anymore and I very clearly was. I want to make nice things but the horrible ones just come out. Maybe it will never leave me. Maybe that's the way it is.

Aside from being a feircly terrifing casum of darkness I am also obsessed with colour and light! The beautiful things I create can be found here

www.mindlikemagpie.com
I will write something nice about India soon because it is truly is incredible. I just had to get these postcards off my chest first.
Love from
Charlie Tuesday Gates
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