Artist: Suvajit Mandal - @amator_domini
What are your pronouns?
Him/Her ...I enjoy the woman inside me..so I also feel very happy if someone refer me as Her.
What is your sexual orientation/gender identity?
Queer Male.
Where are you from/based?
Basically from Kolkata, India. But now residing at Dharamshala Himachal Pradesh, India.
Do you think there’s a culture of homophobia/transphobia in the city/country you live in?
Queer people are still struggling all over India, but if I talk about Dharamshala, the Himachali locals tend to be in closet if they are gay. But, for me I am out to my close friends here. They seem to be ok, but we never openly discuss it either.
*All images used for this post are Suvajit's work
Do you think your local art/music scene is LGBT friendly?
Dharamshala is mostly about Tibetan thangka paintings and Kangra Miniature… so it's very difficult to see queer art in them… It's a small town and people are religious and somewhat orthodox too, so even they have liking for same sex they won't come out very easily. Grindr cruising feels like you giving an interview here haha... But there are exceptions, there are some people who are out and proud.
How does your queer identity influence your work?
My work is mostly based on the religious figures or the spirituality behind them… I try to work with the sex and gender fluidity in mythology. Nowadays, I am trying to work on Queer Spiritual Love which involves my emotions and some small sweet love stories of my life.
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