The two-month long performative exercise titled ‘The Other at the Vayanshala ‘ culminated in the form of an accordion photo-book. While performing in the reading rooms in Kochi, the interaction with fellow readers made me think about how any act of gaining information is not free of prejudices. Information is always relative and depends on who is imparting it. Accessibility then becomes a tool to gate keeping or complete conditioning. The intervention COVER-UNCOVER was informed by these investigations. A critique on accessibility, shaping of thought and transformation of familiar spaces, it essentially questions ‘How to read?’

 The photographs of distinct reading rooms, along with the date of the performance subtly critique the absence of women in public spaces. Frugal in its look and feel, in the first glance there’s nothing spectacular or eventful in the book. However, fold after folds, men leisurely reading newspapers in collective spaces makes the invisibility of women apparent.