Description
as a djinn is a collection of black and white photographs of the city of Delhi, India, Kira’s hometown.
The images were made over a period of 4 years (2018-21), during which Kira observed and photographed her city through a lens of grief, loneliness, anxiety, and sometimes, hope.
During difficulties with mental health, the exercise was to see oneself in the world and to see the world in oneself.
Delhi is the capital city of India, and has been the seat of power for many empires in the past. It is chaotic, aggressive, eerie, and ugly; it is also charming, resilient, surreal, and seductive. Perhaps it is so because of all it has survived: being built, destroyed, and rebuilt century after century at the whims of different men. They say the city has been rebuilt seven times, the one standing today being the eighth: a crowded noisy concrete labyrinth, a sedimented necropolis.
In dusty tombs of royalty unknown, curious staircases always bolted and locked, bored pigeons seasonal flowers, frustrated graffiti, neglected museum treasure, protest, and artist-friends, she shows her city, as a djinn.
