edition of 5 plus 2 AP.

“What I especially can’t wrap my mind around is the idea of this ‘Dreaming Garden’ at the centre of the poster, an outlandish make-believe place where these so-called ‘qtpoc’ dream and re-dream futures where the courtesan roots of these dance forms are respected enough to facilitate an anti-caste, anti-colinial, pro-sex work (!) approach to the art form. This film and its poster are inciting a re-imagining of our world into an anti-colonial future and we should all be concerned about what that means.” 

– Madhuraa, Bollywouldn’t

ID: Daytime photo of Palm House at Kew Gardens, a large glass-domed greenhouse.  Across one side and corner warps a vintage Bollywood mural. In the central hexagon is a light-skinned south Asian person wearing elaborate gold jewellery, headpiece and red and brass ankle bells. Their head and shoulders are draped in a translucent lilac shawl with neon yellow trim as they lay on their side on some grass in front of banana palms, pink/yellow flowers, green bushes, brown benches and at rear, a grey old building with columns. Surrounding this is a detailed, dotted pattern of embroidered fabric in red, blue, and mustard reaching close to the edges of the page. In each corner of the image is an oval with the same person wearing a blue and mustard outfit and the red/brass ankle bells, in different dance poses surrounded by patterns of pastel dots. Title reads “SHOPNA BAGAN”