White Chapel Gallery | Exhibition review

by Mareen Poeschl

A new photo exhibition at the East End Whitechapel Gallery, Where Three Dreams Cross, provides an insight into the history of South Asia.

The exhibition brings together for the first time 400 works by over 70 photographers from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Whether the pictures have been taken by professional photographers or are just amateur snapshots, they capture real life and the spirit of the countries.

The photos are arranged around various themes such as The Portrait, The Family and The Body Politic...

The Family section gives intimate insights into day-to-day experiences.

Surprisingly, the exhibition is not too focused on the three countries as former British colonies. This is the deliberate aim of the curators, to subvert our tendency to read these cultures in the light of their turbulent political history.

There are photographs of key political moments, especially from the 40s, which are interesting given that all three states became independent from 1947.

Exhibition performance

Another highlight of the exhibition is Performance, the colourful photographs from the golden Bollywood era look to the Western movie ideals.

The exhibition allows you to follow 150 years of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh’s history.

What makes it so interesting is the way this unique impression radically changes our view from the outside as we see how the countries look from within over the last 150 years.

The exhibition makes you realise that the cliche pictures and assumptions everybody has in mind when thinking of these countries are not always true.

The real achievement of the exhibition is it’s intimate insight into very rich and self-determined cultures. The exhibition runs until April 11 and tickets for students are £6.50.

There’s also a lot of special events taking place alongside the exhibition, including artist Bani Abidi discussing his work on Sunday February 21 and London’s premiere Bollywood club night, Kuch Kuch, taking over the gallery on March 5.

Visit www.whitechapelgallery.org for more information.