Preview: Wednesday, 31st July 2024; 6:30 pm onwards
Exhibition Dates: 31st July to 31st August, 2024
Venue: Gallery Art Positive, Old M Road, Lado Sarai, New Delhi – 110030
Time: 11 am to 7 pm
Solo Exhibition by Sarah Jabbari: “Select Sympathy”**
“Select Sympathy,” a solo exhibition Curated by Georgina Maddox by the Iranian photographer Sarah Jabbari Jabbari, an Iranian photographer, has dedicated her work to documenting the lives of the Kashmiri Pandit community. Her empathetic lens captures the stories of this community in places such as New Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, as well as in metropolitan cities like Bangalore and Mumbai. the show is at Gallery Art Positive, Old M Road, Lado Sarai, New Delhi.
Selective ‘Sympathy’ brings together the concerns of photographer Sarah Jabbari who has worked with the Kashmiri Pandit community. As an Iranian photographer Sarah focuses on documenting this community in New Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir and other metropolitan cities like Bangalore and Mumbai. She rests an empathetic lens upon the community and how they carry their sense of belonging to their native land with them.
As an Iranian photographer concerned with human societies and cultural relations, the Kashmiri Pandit community’s story of exodus struck a deep chord with me. Their centuries-long struggle of forced conversions and exiles mirrors the historical and contemporary challenges faced by Iranians. “For me, the Pandits are a reflection of Iran in many aspects. The commonalities between the two Indo-Iranian groups of Iranians and Kashmiris, reveals profound similarities in linguistic roots, cultural exchanges, and religious bonds that date back to the Gathic and the Vedic periods. Historically, Kashmir has been known as “Iran-e-Sagheer” or “Small Iran,” emphasizing these deep connections.
Sarah, who has lived in Iran and in India for a period of five years ongoing, is interested in the idea of an itinerant existence that is overlaid with concepts of social and religious change and imposition. To use her words, “Upon learning about the Kashmiri Pandits, I felt compelled to document their story. The bias in narratives often overshadowed their genuine suffering, used instead to support specific political agendas. My project aims to bring forth their true plight, free from the skewed sympathies of societal and political constructs. Despite facing criticism and even suspicion for my motives I remain steadfast, as the title “Selective Sympathy” reflects a deeper irony: the notion that expects empathy to be confined within the borders of nationality or religion”, says Sarah.
Now photographing the Kashmiri Pandits, Sarah has constructed a narrative where objects—like artificial snow and the Chinar Tree that reminds them of their home. Without taking the tone of victimhood she presents their complex relationship with living as migrants away from their homes, and roots. The exhibition brings her work to dialogue with the viewers, where the transient roots of an exile are examined by Sarah with an eye for capturing the emotive details of objects, landscapes and beliefs that surround the everyday existence of the Kashmiri Pandits. It’s all about feelings and humanity.
Short Bio of the Artists:
Born in Tehran, Iran, Sarah began photography at age seventeen at the Tehran Visual Arts School while studying Graphics. With my academic education in photography art history, Photojournalism, she has recently completed a PhD research on the history of photography of Iran and the Parsis of India in the 19th century through the lens of gender in a comparative study (2022).Her main photo activities were participation in the Delhi Photo Festival 2015, Angkor Photo Workshop in Siem Reap, Cambodia, in 2018 and receiving the Sahapedia Frames Photography Grant in 2019. Since then, her photography was almost on pause till 2024, when she restarted it. She is interested in long-term documentary photography projects with a focus on human relations and cultural/ religious issues.
