ARTIST STATEMENT

I am from Mumbai, India. I completed my Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with an emphasis in Printmaking and Painting/Drawing in 2017. 

In the formative years of my art practice my work was an amalgamation of printmaking, drawing and painting, through which I deconstructed the essence and importance of meditation, prayer and religious practices in my life. The works were heavily influenced by my upbringing as I grew up around people of many faiths in an environment where tolerance and pluralism were protected. In the midst of the chaos, unrest and many examples of intolerance in the world today, I attempted to demonstrate through my work the peace and serenity that I obtain through Bandagi also called Zikr, which is a form of repetitive chanting. That has since been the basic inspiration for my work but the manifestation of the same has taken different forms altered by the twists and turns my life has take. 

Since suddenly losing my mother my life and work had taken a brief halt. Doing anything seemed like I would be making new memories which were without here, hence it did not feel right. A few months later a realization that maybe making work about her would reduce the suffering brought me back to my practice. This time around the meditation that started off as an idea to express peace and serenity is what encouraged me to live my life again. Loss, when it’s our own seems magnanimous but, when shared with others and when others’ loss is shared with you, you start to understand the entirety of the world, it gives you some perspective. Although I had explored the loss of family members in the past, nothing felt like this, nothing felt like a part of me leaving.