Aaditya Aggarwal
Between Recline and Repose
“The body is a weight although it’s also lightness,” writes Aaditya Aggarwal in the AM10 journal’s penultimate text, quoting Lauren Berlant and Kathleen Stewart (as did Catrin Menai’s piece, published in January). The Toronto-based writer and programmer continues the restless, breathlessly allusive tenor of much of this series with a sparklingly poetic essay on the image of the resting or reclining female figure, who turns away from the spectator’s gaze. Roving through sources ranging from Hollywood and Indian cinemas, the photographs of Dayanita Singh, and contemporary artist-filmmakers including Moyra Davey and Tulapop Saenjaoren, Aggarwaal’s is is a criticism which does not aim for conclusiveness or didacticism but seeks the production of new, inherently comparative expressions and poetics instead from looking indiscriminately across media and their contexts; an apt mirror for the mission of Artes Mundi, and of the writing produced for this journal over the last few months.
Mae’r corff yn bwysau ac mae’n ysgafnder: dyma syniad wrth graidd yr ysgrif olaf-ond-un ein cyfres, gan Aaditya Aggarwal, gan ddyfynnu Lauren Berlant a Kathleen Stewart fel gwnaeth Catrin Menai yn ei darn a gyhoeddwyd ym mis Ionawr. Mae’r sgwennwr-guradur, sy’n byw yn Toronto, yn parhau gyda naws gyfeiriol ddiflino sawl darn yn y gyfres, gydag ysgrif beirniadol barddonol ar ddelweddau o’r ffigwr benywaidd sy’n gorwedd neu’n gorffwys, gan ymwrthod â disgwyliadau’r edrychwr. Gan gyfeirio at sinema Hollywood ac India, at ffotograffau Dayanita Singh ac at artistiaid ffilm cyfoes fel Tulapop Saenjaoren a Moyra Davey, nid oes diddordeb gan feirniadaeth Aaditya hoelio unrhyw atebion pendant i unrhyw ddadl. Mae’n edrych yn ddi-wahân dros bob math o ffynhonellau i gynhyrchu poetics a dealltwriaethau newydd sy’n gynhenid gymharol; drych, felly, o holl ethos Artes Mundi, a’r gwaith sgwennu a gynhyrchwyd i’r platfform hwn dros y misoedd diwethaf.
Although stationary, the resting muse is a cautious agent. She particularly activates in moving images. Think, a svelte-boned Rekha’s lovelorn repose as Chandni, flanked by a bouquet of roses amid daintily stylized environs in Yash Chopra’s Silsila (1981) […] or, in stark severity, a regally browed Joan Crawford as the unnerved Mildred Weatherby in Robert Aldrich’s Autumn Leaves (1956). The final still is alerted by a sharp throw of light bathing Crawford’s face. Angled in moody physicality, the supine protagonist is a palpable firework. The girl in repose simmers with motive, containing a storm inside.
Aaditya Aggarwal is a film curator, writer, and editor based in Toronto. In 2023, Aaditya was the Warner Bros. Curatorial Fellow at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and an Online Fellow at the Flaherty Film Seminar. Aaditya’s writing on film is published in outlets such as C Magazine, Rungh Magazine, and the New Inquiry. He also programmed the ongoing series ‘Desirous Discords: Romantic Melodramas of Yash Chopra and Douglas Sirk’ at TIFF Cinematheque.
Curadur ffilm, sgwennwr a golygydd yw Aaditya Aggarwal, sy’n byw yn Toronto. Yn 2023, derbyniodd gymrodoriaeth Warner Bros. gan y Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) a chymrodoriaeth gan y Flaherty Film Seminar, ac mae ei sgwennu ar ffilm yn ymddangos gyda C Magazine, the New Inquiry, Rungh Magazine, ac eraill. Ar hyn o bryd, mae’n gyfrifol am y rhaglen ‘Desirous Discords: Romantic Melodramas of Yash Chopra and Douglas Sirk’ yn y TIFF Cinematheque.