How do objects become precious to us? How can one object hold the multitude of our desires, dreams, fears, aspirations and inhibitions– sometimes pushing us away and sometimes propelling us towards itself?
In April 2022, The Third Eye organised a workshop with 13 women working as case workers on gender-based violence across three organisations in Bundelkhand and Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. This theatre workshop is part of one of our ongoing projects and was facilitated by Maraa (an arts collective based in Bangalore). Participants were asked to bring an object that was the most precious to them and share stories of their attachment towards the object. Between moments of laughter and pauses of collective silences, the women shared memories, experiences and reflections of their relationship with their precious objects – how the pen was instrumental in their struggle for literacy, how the brief parting from their diary made them all the more determined; how owning a mobile phone was a prolonged enterprise involving families and a funeral.
These everyday objects were soon draped by the women’s narratives – in collectively witnessing and making meaning of their journeys towards autonomy.
Watch the video to see these stories unfold in their own words.
