AVE MARIA

At this year’s biennale, artist Aryakrishnan Ramakrishnan pays tribute to his transgender friend Anil Sadanandan, aka Sweet Maria, who was murdered on May 9, 2012, in her home in Kollam. In what Ramakrishnan calls “an ongoing monument”, a brilliant red cloth flows off a modest bed decorated with black cushions onto the floor beneath an inscription or life motto scrawled on the wall. “If I didn’t define myself for myself / I would be crunched into other people’s fantasies / and eaten alive,” it reads. Saying the blood-like red cloth reminds him of a red dress Maria wore to Kerala’s second queer pride parade, Ramakrishnan notes its power as a symbol, too. “In communist Kerala, red also signifies the red flag, the revolution and the monuments for communist party martyrs,” he explains, noting that Maria’s murder has still not been solved.