PRIDE IN MOTION EXHBIT | Clifford Chance
For us, Pride in Motion became a way to explore queerness as something living, fluid, celebratory, and constantly unfolding. Through the artworks in this deck, we interpret the theme through movement, identity, intimacy, culture, resilience, joy, and self-expression.
The selected pieces aim to celebrate LGBTQ+ experiences while opening up conversations around visibility, belonging, allyship, and the many ways queer people continue to exist, create, and thrive in motion.
Part 1: Artworks by Anwesh Sahoo
The Effeminare Man
The Effeminare Man challenges the rigid boundaries of traditional masculinity by presenting softness, vulnerability, beauty, chaos, sensuality, power, and emotional depth as equally masculine. The mirrored body becomes a reflection of contradiction itself: armour alongside tenderness, florals alongside strength, fragility beside resilience. The work is deeply tied to Pride in Motion through its exploration of masculinity as something fluid and constantly evolving rather than fixed.
Growing up queer, femininity in men was often treated as failure, something to suppress, mock, or “correct.” This piece pushes back against that idea by reclaiming effeminacy as something powerful, layered, and worthy of celebration. Unlike some of the other works in the series that focus on community, identity, or cultural belonging, The Effeminare Man turns inward. It explores the internal motion of queer selfhood: the battle between societal expectations and authenticity, between protection and exposure, between the armour we build and the softness we hide beneath it.
Hijra Habba: Into Her World
This artwork captures a vibrant moment from my comic strip Effeminared, where the main character is introduced to the world of transness through the joy, power, and community of Hijra Habba celebrations. Through movement, color, and gathering, the piece reflects a moment of awakening, where identity is no longer something distant or feared, but something lived, embodied, and celebrated.
The red-clad figure leads the viewer forward almost like an invitation into a new way of seeing, being, and belonging. In the spirit of Pride in Motion, this work speaks to pride as transformation in action. It honours the Hijra community and the ways trans and queer people create pathways for others to discover themselves. Here, motion is not just dance or celebration, but the movement toward selfhood, chosen family, and a life that feels more true.
Lotus Veil
Lotus Veil is a quiet meditation on identity, vulnerability, and survival. Rooted in my Odia heritage through the Sambalpuri Ikat drape and the symbolism of the lotus, the piece reflects the experience of growing into yourself while navigating worlds that often ask queer people, especially queer women to remain unseen, their invisibilization in pop culture and society at large. The lotus, blooming gently from murky waters, becomes a metaphor for queer resilience, especially within traditional spaces where identity can sometimes feel hidden beneath layers of silence, expectation, or shame. The veil of leaves partially obscuring the face speaks to that in-between space many queer people know intimately: existing, becoming, and protecting parts of yourself while still finding ways to bloom.
For Pride in Motion, this artwork explores queerness not only as visibility and protest, but also as quiet endurance, cultural rootedness, tenderness, and the ongoing journey of reclaiming space within one’s own heritage. It is about carrying both pride and ancestry together, softly, beautifully, and unapologetically.
Becoming Despite
A reflection on the trans experience of existing, resisting, and continuing to become in a world that constantly demands permission to do so. Inspired by the struggles surrounding the Transgender Persons Bill and the fight for recognition, dignity, and autonomy, the intertwined figures represent trans lives moving through grief, hope, rage, softness, survival, and transformation all at once.
The bodies dissolve into one another like flowing motion, symbolising how identity cannot be boxed, legislated, or reduced to paperwork. Even in the face of scrutiny, invalidation, and systemic violence, there is still movement. There is still becoming.
For Pride in Motion, this piece speaks about the ongoing journey of trans people towards visibility, selfhood, and liberation, not because the world allowed it, but because they chose to exist anyway.
Part 2: Artworks by Kiri
Achilles & Patroclus
Achilles and Patroclus which is often not captured by history. It is focused on the joy of two men who chose each other. Mythology has always featured queer characters, it is not something new. Achilles fought for Patroclus and was buried next to him so he would not be parted even in death.
For Pride in Motion, this piece is about reclaiming the past as something that belongs to us too. It is about finding our reflections in mythology and in history.
The Room
Five people in one small room. Each person has their own distinct personality. Here, they are co-existing and working alongside in a place where all of them belong. They are making space for each other. The room is full of posters, artwork, decorations and furniture that gives us a glimpse into their lives and how they share the space with each other. Each of them is taking up space and being themselves rather than shrinking themselves. Them also make room for each other. The piece is chaotic and organised at the same time. That is how communities come to exist.
For Pride in Motion, this piece is about the kind of belonging that queer people build when the world outside does not always offer it. The motion is collective, people making room for each other, choosing to share the space. It reflects how communities are built in real time.
Pride In Nature
Nature has always been queer. The word ‘unnatural’ has been used against queer people and I have used this piece to show how queerness has existed in nature before we defined it. The animals and plants featured here have documented queer experiences and identities. Nature itself defies binaries and the work simply shows what already exists and will continue to do so. It shows that queerness is found everywhere.
Inspired by the loose and free quality of watercolour, the piece is free flowing and chaotic while being defined. The colours are like splashes of joy and taken from the rainbow.
For Pride in Motion, this piece is a simple and joyful declaration that queerness has always been here. In every ecosystem, in every century, in every form that life has taken. It is not new.
Four Frames
Inspired by pop art and comics, this piece features queer people being themselves and being together. The colours are taken by different pride flags and reflect different identities. The people are diverse, reflecting our country’s diversity. All of us are different and unique but we are all together as well.
In the context of Pride in Motion, this piece is a reminder that there is no progress without progress for all. Solidarity is a key element in developing a world that is more inclusive and kinder.