Untitled (11), from the series Acts of Appearance

The universal is often achieved by looking at the local or the quotidian, things that are familiar and therefore not exotic, but never ordinary. Gauri Gill

Gauri Gill trained as a photojournalist and later worked as a painter and sculptor before studying in New York and returning to photography in the 1990s. She has frequently collaborated to create work, for instance the exquisite 2013 series Fields of sight was made with celebrated Adivasi painter Rajesh Vangad, who inscribed photographs taken by Gill with Warli designs. In the 1970s, painters in the Warli villages north of Mumbai, started to move away from wall murals to painting on paper. While the murals were painted by women for ceremonial occasions, the portable pictures were made by men for sale.

Gill began the series Acts of Appearance in 2015 when she became interested in working with Warli and Kokna artists from Jawhar who are known for producing ceremonial masks from papier-mâché. Although traditional masks emulate particular beings and are often consecrated, Gill’s images capture newly commissioned forms, many of which depict contemporary elements like cameras and televisions as well as the faces of everyday people rather than deities. The resulting pictures present curiously uncanny but respectful and richly coloured representations of daily village life – focusing on the lively humanness of the people rather than their impoverishment.

Whether as mask makers or subjects, the creation of the ongoing series has so far involved the following people: Bhagvan Dharma Kadu, Subhas Dharma Kadu, Yuvraj Bhagvan Kadu, Rahul Arvind Kakad, Madhuri Subhas Kadu, Vaibhav Subhas Kadu, Rahul Bhagvan Kadu, Makhaval Bhagvan Kadu, Mukta Subhas Kadu, Rangeeta Arvind Kakad, Sampat Raho Vazare, Gangubai Eshwar Vazare, Rajashri Eshwar Vazare, Darshana Devram Kakad, Ganesh Ganpat Lokhande, Sangeeta Ganesh Lokhande, Sangeeta Navnath Kadu, Kusum Bhagvan Kadu, Harishchandra Rama Kadu, Suvrna Harishchandra Vad, Anjana Sachin Kurbude, Sachin Sankar Kurbude, Sanjay Sakharam Vatas, Ganpat Ganga Lokhande, Rupesh Arvind Kakad, Nalini Pradip Valvi, Jyoti Sanjay Vatas, Shravan Budhya Tumbda, Saraswati Subhas Kadu, Sapna Bhagvan Kadu, Bhawna Bhagvan Kadu, Pooja Arvind Kakad, Tushar Prakash Vatas, Tushar Dinkar Vatas, Vijaya Navnath Kadu, Suraj Tukaram Vad, Nishant Tulshiram Thalkar and Nilam Sunil Marad.