Photo from “A Day in the Life” (Shelly Bahl)

Inspired by an Architectural Digest article about Goldie Hawn’s Indophile-decorated NYC penthouse, visual and media artist [1] Shelly [2] Bahl’s [3] “Goldie’s Temple” (2002) playfully re-imagined the bathroom of the Hollywood actress in a Brooklyn gallery’s washroom, complete with goddess wallpaper and hand towels. Her current exhibit, “A Day in the Life,” running March 27–April 22 at [4] LEE Ka-sing Gallery in Toronto, includes bathroom interiors of a more spartan variety. The exhibit’s series of “constructed” photography was shot in an airport terminal. [5] NOW Magazine reviews the work, featuring five South Asian women (a security officer, a janitor, an air hostess, a businesswoman and a holiday traveler with a baby) socializing and working in the “surreally depopulated airport, a sort of signifier of transitory and transcultural space.” The women in “Bahl’s photos exchange social roles in ways that would be uncomfortable or unthinkable in actuality.”

Another part of the exhibit is the mixed-media video installation [6] “Pink Is The Navy Blue of India,” inspired by a quote from fashion guru, Diana Vreeland. Bahl, who is a founding member of South Asian Visual Arts Collective ([7] SAVAC), has been observing the current public fascination with “Indian/ Bollywood Chic” and has developed a group of works in response to the phenomena. Visit [8] her site for more.