EL PELELE

Karachi, Pakistan, 2003.

The video work deals with the relationship between women and men in a patriarchal society. The video is quoting the painting ‚El Pelele‘ by Francisco de Goya, which was created 1791/1792 and shows a game in which a male doll is thrown by four women in the air. The video is speculating how that scene could have developed further. The scene is repeated in a video, showing the doll slowly disintegrating over the course of the game.

The work borrows some aesthetics from South Asian miniature painting. The rag doll was created by a seamstress in Lahore and painted by a Pakistani miniature artist. The video is displayed framed like a miniature painting.