'The Veil’, in collaboration with Alexis Obue, explores how patriarchal shame becomes internalised and expressed through the body. It draws on the artists’ own experiences with visibility, identity, and self-censorship in the face of social judgment.
Blending digital projections with movement, the piece combines two contrasting dance styles. Kathak is used for its storytelling depth and historical resilience, having moved from sacred performance to stigma and back. Heels dance incorporates the stiletto, a symbol of objectification now reimagined as a tool of empowerment and sensuality.
Movement becomes a language for release and transformation. It is a meditation on how women navigate agency and oppression through movement, and how dance can serve as both a shield and a form of protest.
Kashish Gakhar
A creative working across immersive media, branding, creative coding, and classical Indian dance. With a background in Visual Communication from Tsinghua University, her practice combines storytelling with technology. She explores embodied storytelling rooted in South Asian culture drawing on mythology, ancestral memory, and the politics of perception. She uses techniques like interactive visuals, sound that respond in real-time, allowing viewers to naturally engage and immerse themselves in her work.
She has worked with clients such as Honda, Kose (Spawake), Plated Project, and CrepDogCrew, and collaborates with artisans in India. Her work spans exhibitions across China, India, and the UK, engaging ecology, intangible heritage, and resistance to colonial/patriarchal narratives.
Instagram: @katterpil
Website: https://kashishgakhar.framer.website/
Frameless website about the project:
https://frameless.com/bodiesunbound/