Eunuchs | The Hijras

Music Composition: Sussan Deyhim 
Produced by Elahe Massumi c - 2000

Elahe Massumi's installation work, The Hijras examines rituals and rites of passages that are inconceivable and archaic in the contemporary world. The tales of emasculated men and their acquiring divine status is encountered throughout both fiction and non-fiction literature and it fills our imagination. However, the choice of the Hijras as the subject matter for this work goes beyond simple curiosity. More than offering commiseration, Massumi opens to her public the possibility of going beyond the purely tangible and visual. Her work invites the viewer to enter into a more extreme space, an off-planet location in contemporary art, from where no one leaves undisturbed.