Identities are defined and influenced by the history, society, and culture of our immediate surroundings. As an Indian woman living in a post-colonial era with the history of more than 200 years of colonial past, a citizen of a developing nation, the oppressive patriarchal society, an alien in a “foreign” land, living in heightened political, ecologically imbalanced, and socially unequal and unjust systems I have been assigned social and cultural identities, yet seek to find the self. I conceptually critique and reject assigned identities and constructs and examine the complex underlying systems, values, and attitudes contributing towards displaced and oppressed identities. Much of my work and research in recent projects has been a response to the human condition in the context of the entangled social and political landscape along with environmental imbalance. Reflecting on displaced connections, belonging, and notions of self, my work examines the discursive relationship between knowledge and being. Identities become an expressive artifact captured as an amalgamation of varying influences. Through the intersectional lens, I inquire and consider structural complexity to negotiate unique, pluralistic & hybrid identities. Working with printmaking and expanding my practice to include drawing, sculpture, installation, and collaborative art in the public interest, my search continues into the ever-shifting and constantly evolving notion of self within our existing cultural paradigms. My studio practice primarily uses non-representational and metaphoric expressions. Abstracting and simplifying rudimentary forms allows to transition between tangible and intangible concepts. Grounded in the tradition of rigorous studio practice and material exploration, my research interests include postcolonial studies, decolonizing practices, gender identity and identity politics. I seek inspiration from oral history and the study of human culture to critical theory & pedagogy and ethnographic studies, to abstractly express the essence of daily existence, alternating between competing realities, conflict, and concerns. Through personal and collective narrative inquire the work addresses the need to locate, decode, and connect with one’s inner self and the exterior world which is central to my oeuvre.
