Sujata Setia: A Thousand Cuts

Sujata Setia is the FORMAT25 Award, Lishui Photography Festival Exhibition Award and Genesis Imaging Award winner.

Derived from the ancient Asian form of torture – “Lingchi”, “A Thousand Cuts” studies patterns of domestic abuse in the South Asian community.

I have borrowed the metaphorical meaning of Lingchi to showcase the cyclical nature of domestic abuse. The continuous act of chipping at the soul of the abused, is expressed by making cuts on the portrait of the participant. The paper used to print the portrait is a thin A4 sheet, depicting the fragility of her existence.The red colour underneath the portraits signifies not just martyrdom and strength but also the onset of a new beginning. 

I have kept the project at a domestic scale, using resources available within the home as a metaphorical reflection of violence occurring within the human space. The final artwork is photographed in a very closed, tight crop so as to express a sense of suffocation and absence of room for movement.

My initial intent was to create a metaphorical “waiting room,” where strangers meet and talk to each other without any fear of judgement or hierarchies. An imaginary space where conversations around abusive lived experiences continue to happen. Where it is easy to come out. A room where you are heard, seen, understood and where you feel safe to leave your story behind.

We started by creating that room as a real space. A space in a church in Hounslow, UK.  Many of us met there, several times over. We held hands and spoke at length. No one interjected the other. No one left the room midway. 

I am deeply grateful to the UK-based charity Shewise, which facilitated my connection with the survivors and provided invaluable support by establishing appropriate mental health safeguards. Each survivor who generously agreed to participate in this project is navigating a unique stage of trauma, making it essential for Shewise and me, to ensure that our engagement does not leave their wounds bleeding.

These initial dialogues led to the creation of a vector of faith between myself and the participants in this project. We then moved on to private one-on-one conversations and me photographing each survivor individually with their consent and their complete control on the way they want to be “seen.” Once I printed the images, the survivor then selected the image she wanted me to start making the cuts on. The motifs made through these cuts are a metaphorical representation of the women’s own lived experiences. Here, I employ the technique of the South Asian art of paper cutting called Sanjhi Art.

Historically Sanjhi art works were created by the Hindu god Krishna’s female consorts to attract his attention, showcasing an inherent power imbalance between genders. I wanted to create these contemplations of not just abusive lived experiences but also an inquiry into culture. 

Through individual narratives of the survivors we see how coercive control involves regulating the minutiae of everyday life including how women dress and do housework, whom they meet and talk to, and depriving them of or restricting their access to even the most basic necessities of life such as food, water and fresh air.

Also, through the act of making cuts on the survivor’s portrait, the artist embodies the entangled identities of the abuser and the abused. That helped me understand the perpetrator’s obsession with violence and destruction. There is rhythm in violence. A form of meditation, even. 

This work is an effort to understand abuse from many different frames of references. The role of past in formulating narratives of the present and the future; locating the inter-relativity between childhood and adulthood.

The long term intention is to bring narratives of abuse into public discourse, arts and human spaces. In that sense, this work is an invitation for an open dialogue that allows both the survivor and society at large, to explore concepts such as trauma, suffering, cultural predispositions, gender and identity politics without sacrificing their own vulnerability or risking confrontation.

By making physical cuts on the survivor’s portrait, the endeavour is to showcase the juxtaposition of many energies and realms of individual and systemic consciousnesses, in the act of normalising abuse. The focus is on narratives of the South Asian subject. One finds in there, a certain similitude of hegemonic masculinity and a history of colonisation that then helps us sketch out broad patterns that might provide useful lines of inquiry. 

This series also studies the journey of abuse from the private, intimate space where violence occurs; to its place in the public domain, whether it be in terms of how the private reality is subverted; decorated in public or that initial disclosure process when the survivor breaks their silence and speaks out to family, friends, neighbours, colleagues or even absolute strangers. This photographic study draws on interviews with 21 South Asian women (it is an ongoing project) and analyses the interactional and emotional processes of the first public disclosure of their private reality.

Participant

Sujata Setia