In the last year and a half, we’ve experienced uncertainty at an unprecedented level with the pandemic threatening spaces outside our control. This differentiation of space between the inside and the outside has assumed a unique importance in these challenging times.
However, negotiating boundaries is something that we always do. Whether these are the physical boundaries between the comfort zone of our home and the risky adventures awaiting outside, the shifting boundaries between ‘my’ space and ‘your’ space or even self-referential boundaries between I- the actor and I – the observer.
We reside in many of these contesting spaces and perhaps, can even contend that respite from one lies in the other. But how is one to negotiate these spaces? This is at the core of my practice as an artist to explore ideas of movement, flow.
Movement is in the churning, in the agitating and amidst that we keep looking for stability, certainty and balance. My artistic practice is informed and shaped by the idea that this elusive balance is not the balance we associate with the tranquil stillness of a sage, standing on one foot for days on an end, through abstinence and cramped muscles, through sun and rain, but a dynamic balance of a trapeze artist in constant dialogue with balance and imbalance, moving from one end of the tightrope to the other. Movement is key to negotiating spaces inside-outside.
Working with a vastly malleable material such as clay, the primary focus of my practice has been on the form wherein I think about how to bring in the visual qualities that emulate movement, fluidity, balance. Water, a medium in motion that is boundary-agnostic, has been an inspiration for my work. Line, whether is it the line of the form itself or the surface treatment of the form, is an integral focal point of the work as well.
Process wise, while working with clay, the hand-memory takes over and I’m discovering the form as it is shaping up, a dance between intuitive and cultivated instincts. All of my work is hand built and for the surface treatment, I use methods such as sgraffito, wax resist, carving and painting with underglazes on bisqueware.