I am an independent self-taught artist, living and working in Delhi. In the past years, I had 3 solo exhibitions of my work in Delhi :
– “INTEGRATION OF INNOVATION”, in the India Habitat Centre in 2015
– “AVALANCHE:: AVATAR: 00:00”, at the All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society (AIFACS) in 2016
– INOrganic, also at AIFACS in 2018.
In 2014, I worked with the Gallerie Daniel Besseiche from Paris at the annual India Art Fair in Delhi.
In 2015, I received the 88th AIFACS Award for my work titled ” Transformation”.
In 2019 the Lalit Kala Academy (National Academy of Arts) selected one of my recent works “Password Protected” for the annual National Exhibition 2019 in Mumbai.
In 2018, the German news Channel ARD followed me during the entire week before the opening of my exhibition. This documentary is scheduled to be broadcast later this year.
Concept Note:
- Interaction of Modern humans in this technological world
My mother was a simple housewife but also a very creative woman. I remember, as a child, how she made all kinds of decorations for the big festivals and encouraged me to participate. I was fascinated by the way her skilled (and my searching) hands changed very simple things like wood, straw, textile, paint, or clay into things of joy and beauty, celebrating our family’s life. It’s probably her example that made me start painting later while in college. I always enjoyed painting but I didn’t think of it as a career option, so I chose to study engineering.
It was only after getting my degree as an engineer that I realized I wanted to pursue a career as an artist. Yet, the way I look at the world has been profoundly influenced by my studies in engineering. I was born in 1989 and thus a child of an era in which technology became more and more part of everyday life and made our lives easier, more comfortable, and also faster. I have observed the rapid changes technology causes in our lives and how these changes seem to accelerate exponentially. My work as an artist reflects this changing relationship between human beings and technology. In the past centuries, technology gave us machines and instruments that helped us perform certain tasks but once the task was done, we put away the instrument or stopped the machine. Machines helped us to do things better and faster but they were objects, things we used but put away or left alone after use. Yet, in this century, technology no longer only delivers instruments that are completely separated from ourselves (like a hammer or a bread toaster) but more and more, instruments become almost like new limbs of our bodies, completely changing our way of life (like our smartphones). I try to show this strong bond between man and technology as an inseparable layer of PCB (printed circuit board) on human skin. This PCB is made up of basic electronic components. My study in electronics and communication engineering became the tool to understand the use of basic electronic components in the modern human body. This changed the representation of the human body in my art expressing this new evolution. I use the term “technical human” for modern man, living in a rapidly evolving world where technology influences almost every aspect of our modern lives. In my artwork, I try to express all these changes in our lifestyle.
At first, I expressed this in two-dimensional paintings but gradually, I started experimenting with different materials to give an added dimension to my canvasses. Hence my experiments with aluminum rivets in different ways. Similarly, I’ve used basic electronic components like resistors, capacitors, diodes, integrated circuits, transistors, LEDs, and electronic waste. I also use handmade strings ( colored woolen threads, fiber cotton, and wires) or padded volumes to give an extra dimension to the canvas.
I produce drawings, paintings, installations, and mixed media work. I aim to show the huge changes technology brings to our lives. My work does not intend to celebrate nor condemn this growing influence of technology on our lives. I accept it as an integral part of the rapidly evolving ‘condition human’.
My trajectory from the world of engineering to the world of contemporary art is an ongoing exploration in different media of the continuously changing interaction between man and technology. Recurring themes are abstractionism, the human body, technology, and contemplation.
2. Memories of Mattresses
Memories of the mattresses are a series of mattresses portraying different psychological states of my mind. Since 2016, I have lived alone in my rented apartment in Delhi. My mattress set on the floor is the only place to sit, eat, sleep, and converse in my apartment. It is both a central and intimate space. I keep on lying on the mattress for hours and hours into the journey of my thoughts, absorbing all of them. My mind, all emotions, and related movements of the body, I feel, my mattress knows more about me than anyone else. We developed an intimacy I could not know with others. I was driven to collect these unique states of mind and soul to harbor them within me. I capture these diverse psychological states through different physical positions on my mattress. I painted my entire body and lay down on the mattress impregnating it with my state of being at the moment, transporting my mental and spiritual state into physical manifestations.
All mattresses are of the same size (183cm x 97cm) and made up of the same material
(canvas fabric and 2kg cotton in each mattress).
3. Tongue Series
The Tongue series addresses the recurring issue of control by the powerful voices of the weaker members of society. The voices of the weaker are threatened, suppressed, and sometimes completely silenced by those with power be it political power, military power, cultural dominance, or any other form of power that is capable of smothering the voices of others. The powerful are entirely capable of remaining silent in the most alarming of situations if speaking would damage their image. Their voices in the meantime can be sweet when it is to their benefit, but their speech can metamorphose into a bitter weapon when necessary to strike
down the weaker. In India, we have many terms for such voices serving as bitter weapons: Meethi choori (sweet weapon), Kaali zuban (black tongue), zuban band car (stop your tongue), Talwar si chalti zuban (tongue moves like a sword). All artwork of the tongue series have the same size ( 36”x 24” ) and medium ( acrylic on canvas,
letters beads, steel wire, hand made fabric strings, and aluminum rivets ).