Solo Exhibit
Le Sutra, Mumbai, India / 24th December 2023
The Frame Game : Let’s Get Nosey
“The Frame Game”
The act of observing often escapes our conscious attention. It's the experience of gazing at something visually captivating that truly prompts us to introspect as viewers. Have you ever caught yourself peering into the intimate interiors of someone else's home? At night, when everything is cloaked in darkness except the warmly lit houses, the windows become perfect frames to peek through. Your eyes stumble upon snapshots of lives - maybe a family dinner, a cluttered room, a horrendous interior, or something entirely unexpected. That feeling of viewing– both guilt and captivation – evokes a voyeuristic intrigue, a wholly irresistible pull.
“The Frame Game" embodies the interplay between windows and paintings, tempting you to pull back the curtains. Exploring a framed view, whether through a square window or a painting, bears an uncanny resemblance: the viewers inadvertently become voyeurs. We find ourselves peering into private lives through these square frames, moving from one window to the next, seeking visual gratification. For me, a compelling painting mirrors this experience. My fascination lies in the art of square framing that offers a pathway for the eye to be able to comfortably unravel the intricate layers within. Through my artworks, integrating frames, borders, and windows, I hope to satiate your nosy allure with the magnetic intimacy of imagined narratives within enclosed spaces.
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“Let’s Get Nosey”
Mumbai is a nosy affair. It is embedded in the tapestry of South Asian culture, our inquisitive nature is as prominent as the noses that sometimes precede us into a room. Our inclination for curiosity and our knack for getting to the bottom of things may very well be the reason behind our, shall we say, generously proportioned noses.
“Let's Get Nosey" is more than an invitation to curiosity. It is an invitation to view the South Asian body. The prominent noses, a nod to our self-perception through a Western lens, take center stage alongside detailed, perfectly arranged hair. By juxtaposing notions of beauty and ugliness, drawn from South Asian miniature paintings, side-profile caricatures emerge as a significant motif within my work. These renditions offer a deliberate avenue to scrutinize specific features I want to illuminate. They become extensions of myself, blurring the lines between caricature and self-portraiture, where identity merges with the echoes of cultural imagery.
The clash intensifies as I embellish imagined figures with Indian ornamentation—clothes, wallpapers, jewelry—culminating a stereotypically "beautiful" yet intricate visual quality. I deliberately use "ugly" features - excessive body hair, big noses—to create an experience that sparks both visual pleasure and discomfort at the same time. This friction extends into a maximalist visual quality, a deliberate visual overload.
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