My work for over a decade has been about the urban environment shifting its focus gradually to the city of New Delhi where I live and work , my immediate point of interaction and concern . Delhi recently held the Commonwealth Games in 2010 and for the last few years in lieu of its preparation it has been hurtling towards becoming a world class city. Roads have been broadened , fly overs have been built for ever increasing number of cars to ply on but to do so hundred year old trees have been chopped off thoughtlessly. Many issues of basic amenities like clean water, garbage disposal, recycling , clean environment etc. remain unresolved . Illegal buildings are allowed to be constructed and then demolished, left to deal with its uncertain future much like the city itself. As I navigate through this environment everyday this it self became my subject.
Trained as a painter I have gradually moved towards making objects choosing to use industrial materials like fiber glass, iron, aluminum ,magnets, wire etc. to represent forms like dead trees, garbage, smog, egg etc. The reason being manifold -the growing middleclass of India have great fascination for everything that is synthetic and how what is man made and what is natural is constantly jostling with each other for their own respective rightful space and the increasing artificial intervention in natural processes .
As a painter surface has continued to be of great importance to me . And of late I have been painting the surface of these objects creating a visual tension that is very satisfying as an artist and also sort of reiterates the complexities of city life .
However gradually from looking at just the surface/skin my gaze has shifted slightly and moved beneath. For me the body of the city and the human body are it seems in a relationship which is fraught with many problems and is often abusive but they coexist however . Human organs take center stage ,their arteries merging into the congested arteries of the city it inhabits dissolving the layer of protection for both from one another . My current body of work is exactly at that transition of moving from the exterior to the inside , to witness how we abuse our environment and how it returns to pollute our insides .
2012, New Delhi.