Scholar, educator, writer, thespian, film artist and arts advocate Sunita Mukhi sought to redefine the concept of beauty as she unraveled it from within the spectators in an interactive performance at the recently concluded Storytelling and the Body: Inclusive Interdisciplinary Conference held in Hotel San Marco in Verona, Italy.
Mukhi, the Associate Dean of the Arts and Culture Cluster of De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB) School of Design and Arts (SDA) and the Artistic Director of DeviDiva Productions, represented the institute in the two-day international convention.
Organized by Progressive Connexions, a United Kingdom-registered non-profit research, development and accreditation association, the forum showcased the power of diverse narratives on physical bodies in theological, ideological, ontological, aesthetic and political grounds.
The live and improvised presentation entitled My Eyes Adore You: You Are Beautiful To Me of Mukhi aimed to face the “contentious, uplifting, complex concept of beauty” as an idea that also compels, destroys, and inspires people.
“A multi-billion dollar industry insures that women are forever insecure by their lack of beauty, and yet there are efforts by activists, humanists and feminists to redefine and reclaim what beauty is,” she posited in her abstract. “Spiritual exegesis assert that outer beauty is ephemeral and true beauty is within. And yet studies have shown that attractive people are more successful, even happier, in the world,” she continued.
In an act that transcended the norms of theater, Mukhi enticed the audience through the endearment “you are beautiful to me” and engaged them in an intimate confession of a particular aspect of the physical appearance they criticize the most.
In reflection of the Japanese art form kintsugi, which patches broken pottery with gold and turns the flaw into aesthetics, Mukhi then generously commended the individual beginning with “My eyes adore you, you are beautiful to me…” followed by improvised comforting and encouraging statements that helped transform the person’s so-called imperfection into something beautiful.
“I complimented in the kindest voice while maintaining eye contact the historical, folk and contemporary notions of physical attributes, beauty, and well-being mined from various cultures,” she shared.
My Eyes Adore You: You Are Beautiful To Me was first performed as part of the South Asian Women’s Creative Collective’s suite of performances entitled Beauty mounted at the 2014 Dumbo Arts Festival in New York, hailed as the largest free art event during its time. Its second iteration was at DLS-CSB’s 2017 Reinterpretations exhibition mounted at the Alto Mondo Gallery, The Picasso Boutique Serviced Residences in Makati City.