Radha is Crowned King

Abstract

This thesis project celebrates 2SLGBTQIA+ Bangladeshi people. I am a Bangladeshi person and a Canadian citizen who is part of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. This thesis consists of three painted portraits titled Radha is Crowned King that portray Bharatnatyam dance positions which convey the love described by famous Bengali poet Kazi Nazrul Islam about the deity partners Radha and Krishna. Through culturally recognizable and significant gestures, the figures swap genders. Through this gender swap, the paintings represent diversity in gender that one can embody. South Asian artists who utilize storytelling to share 2SLGBTQIA+ experiences, have informed the way in which my work resists dehumanization of Bangladeshi LGBTQIA+ people. Artists Vivek Shraya, Salman Toor, Ruhul Abdin, and Tara Asgar are telling queer stories through their visual art and writing. Kazi Nazrul Islam wrote the poem Shoke She Hari Kemon Bol that is about being passionately in love, and that inspired this thesis. Radha is Crowned King confronts the audience with fluidity of gender adding to this collective depth of 2SLGBTQIA+ storytelling, through my queer truth and narrative. This work consists of painting which allows for the creation and illustration of a world where gender hybridity and fluidity exists and is celebrated despite discrimination in the real world. This work is informed by cultural understanding and familial knowledge. This work is also informed by the book Queering Autoethnography by Stacy Holman Jones and Anne M. Harris, and is invigorated by the historical existence of LGBTQIA+ Bangladeshi people. Within cis-heteronormative cultures there is dehumanization and discrimination of LGBTQIA+ Bangladeshi people. The significance of this work is to rejoice with and for 2SLGBTQIA+ people and honor our existence and beauty. My work functions to share a narrative of 2SLGBTQIA+ acceptance. It mediates between 2SLGBTQIA+ people and the Bangladeshi masses, contributing to fostering a stronger community that is peaceful and accepting.