Queer Artist Shakibul Islam Brings Law, Love and Lived Experience to Students’ Biennale

KOCHI:
A young queer artist from West Bengal is bringing questions of intimacy, legality and everyday survival into sharp focus at the Students’ Biennale, part of the ongoing Kochi-Muziris Biennale, through a deeply personal body of work titled Seeking Intimacies.

Shakibul Islam, originally from Kolkata and currently based in Mumbai, is pursuing his Master’s degree at the Sir J.J. School of Art, Architecture and Design. Five of his paintings have been selected for display in the student section of the Biennale, marking a significant milestone in his nascent artistic career.

Islam’s practice centres on queer experiences in contemporary India, moving beyond physical representations of desire to explore emotional, mental and spiritual connections. “Intimacy does not always mean something physical,” he explains. “It also includes emotional bonds, mental connections and a sense of shared soul.”

The curators of the Students’ Biennale frame Islam’s work within a larger constitutional and ethical responsibility. “As curators it is binding for us to present an artist’s practice without censorship and to ensure a safe environment for its reception,” they note. “Shakibul Islam’s work emerges from deeply personal queer narratives, yet it is firmly grounded within the constitutional protections envisioned by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, and reinforced by the recent decriminalisation by the Supreme Court, even as social opposition persists.”

Two of the works, on display at BMS Warehouse in Mattanchery, directly engage with the Indian Constitution and the continuing legal barriers faced by queer communities. One painting imagines alternative family structures that remain illegal or restricted under Indian law, particularly the inability of queer couples to adopt children. The canvas presents hopeful images of families made up of two fathers, two mothers and their children, offering a vision of what equality could look like if legal frameworks were more inclusive.

Another work addresses the unresolved status of queer marriage in India. While same-sex relationships have been decriminalised, marriage equality remains elusive. Drawing from his own cultural background, Islam depicts a Bengali Hindu groom and a Muslim groom waiting to be married, foregrounding both queer identity and secularism. The painting references West Bengal, where social acceptance of queer unions is slowly becoming more visible, even as legal recognition remains absent.

The curators situate this practice within a broader politics of resistance and secularism. “As practitioners we have always sought a syncretic outlook to the deeply communal landscape of our country,” they say. “Within that, Shakibul’s voice is a precious practice of resistance. Under the umbrella of the Secular Art Movement, we seek changes in social structures that impede freedoms, firstly the caste system, but also long-established norms of patriarchy and sexuality.”

Several paintings explore private queer moments shadowed by fear and surveillance. In these works, figures are shown in intimate settings yet remain visibly uncomfortable, aware of the gaze of society. “They are afraid all the time,” Islam notes. “Not because they are doing something wrong, but because society refuses to let them exist freely.”

Islam also turns a critical eye towards queer meeting spaces in India, from dating apps to marginal public locations such as railway lines, forests and public washrooms. These spaces, he suggests, often prioritise physical encounters over emotional connection. One painting uses railway tracks and washroom symbols as metaphors for anonymity, urgency and risk, while referencing Apollo as a symbol of desire without love.

In another work inspired by the dating app Grindr, lavender flowers appear as symbols of queer identity, while fragmented architectural forms resemble chat windows. The painting reflects the mixture of real and fake personas encountered online, and the emotional disconnection that can accompany digital intimacy.

Reflecting on the challenges of presenting such work within a student biennale, the curators emphasise transparency and constitutional literacy. “In the context of a student biennale, we navigated these boundaries by being upfront, informative and constitutionally aware,” they explain, “framing the work not as offence, but as a telling of their story.”

Across all five works, Islam draws heavily from daily lived experience, using vibrant colours and natural elements to translate desire, fear and hope into visual form. At the Students’ Biennale, his paintings stand as both personal testimony and social critique, asking what it truly means to belong, love and be seen in contemporary India.