Leaving Behind the Stardust: Inder Salim and a life sacrificed to art
Performance artist Inder Salim has traversed the profane, the political, and the poetic. Abhimanyu Kumar explores the process behind Salim’s ground-breaking work, where the mundane becomes magical, imperfections are embraced, taboos are broken, and for fleeting moments, the audience and the artist share a sense of transcendence.
Personal Essay by Prachi Sharma: ‘My father pauses in every retelling of this tale. He wants me to see it. A man in the uniform of an Indian working for the English, in a village courtyard in the late 1920s, his face turning to one side from the force of an open palm. The villagers watching. The Daroga’s hand going to his cheek. A pigeon somewhere on the roof, taking off.’