Trash AF 2016
Trash AF is a two part project that was fueled by the anger of a 19 year old after being slut shamed by a friend for the first time. Anger creates Art; we know this. The 2016 project grew over a period of 30 days to gain a lot of limelight in Indian media and global social network.
TrAF was a crowd sourced project where I illustrated nude/semi-nude women (friends and people that found out about the project through social media- namely Instagram) and published their stories of being shamed for simply living their life as a woman.
Trash AF 2019
TrAF 2019 was a lighter take on 2016. A lot of the models were repeated, but all of them were older now; I was older. We held less anger towards our past experiences and had grown to have new, positive associations with our body. This time TrAF was turned into a zine, with happier stories of women and their sexual experiences with and without a partner(s).
The idea was the same, women would send me their nudes/semi nudes to draw along with a story or experience that were then turned into Instagram posts and finally a zine. The volunteering women could choose to keep their names in or stay anonymous. One of the women to volunteer during 2019 was some one whose ex boyfriend in 2016 didn’t give her “permission” to be involved in this project and had since not only broken up with him, but built an entirely new life for herself that was simply hers.
To conclude…
The creation of TrAF and the people I met along the way unknowingly molded me into the person and artist I am today. A friend recently asked me why I haven’t considered doing a 3rd part to TrAF, and I think I finally know. Trash AF was obviously the project that kickstarted my journey into considering myself an artist/creator but it did so much more for not just me but also the people that were involved in it. The two part series ended up being a demonstration of growth and acceptance for all of us. Most of us were 19 during the first edition, and are now closer to exiting our 20s. TrAF met it’s goals and ours in the process.
