My work is informed by memory and cultural
myths recast in a contemporary context. I am an artist from India living in New York. The tension in my work arises
from the co-existence of opposing forces fundamental in Indian culture. The Hindu trinity-represented literally
as the three gods Brahma-Vishnu-Shiva and metaphysically as the three principles of creation-maintenance-destruction-is
core to the cosmology of Hinduism. This tension provides the basis for balancing my formal ceramic practice and
conceptual fragmented narratives explored through cross-disciplinary installation.
Aesthetically I am investigating the heterogeneous aspect of beauty and the grotesque. Ideas of decay, metamorphosis,
entropy and vanitas are central to my work. My installation Untitled 2005, incorporating mixed media elements of
clay, wire and water is a primordial yet futuristic work. The act of incubating-ideas, embryos or entire worlds-suggests
a decaying existence headed towards a radical transformation, where the seeds of the future have been sown. In
my installation Vanitas, the reflection of wrapped decomposing fruits hung over ceramic bowls filled with what
reminds of the blood or essence of the fruits explores the nostalgia of something diminishing. And in my installation
His Master's Voice, themes of metamorphosis and marginalization inherent in the consequences of religious fundamentalism
are implied through life-sized hybrid ceramic figures focused towards a deified center.
I grew up in Calcutta, India, in a home and culture with a strong emphasis on ritual-practiced with an intrinsic
focus on art and philosophy. Scatology and eroticism is the basis of the sacred in Hindu culture, exemplified by
the worship of the phallic and vaginal symbols of Shiva and Parvati and the sanctified use of cow dung. I felt
baffled by the enormous amount of time and effort given to the making of idols and paintings that were destined
to be immersed in the river or burned immediately after their completion. I attended a British school which shunned
such practices and enforced strict Western beliefs. Hierarchical methods created subordination through a colonial
heritage combined with the caste system. We were taught to look down on Indian ritual and practice while revering
English language and culture as superior. And yet these rituals mesmerized me-becoming a part of my subconscious.
My move to New York amplified this cultural dislocation and has informed the conceptual basis of my work.
Formally my work, which is primal yet modernistic in nature, draws from this history, fragmenting and conflating
traditions into new worlds that allow the viewer a visceral experience within a present context. My current project,
Supper with a Vulture, is an animation exploring entropy and altered perception. A girl and a vulture sit at a
table, eating a meal together. They continue to devour each other and begin to physically transfigure, literally
becoming each other. This animation will be exhibited in an installation incorporating clay and mixed media elements
with fantastic and transfigured elements. This awareness of how myth and culture can be reexamined in new ways
will continue to be engaged in my work.
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