Blanket

Blanket is about warmth and secure feelings. It is a protective covering: here it is a blanket that is also of emotions and memories. These works are a visualization of my childhood desires, like dreaming of being a king. Materials used are ordinary, mundane and some associated with beliefs and rituals. Some of them have ritual associations – sacred thread, sacred bangles, and amulets.

Buffing wheels used in Memory are like using childhood clothes to remember innumerable stories from one's life. It is weaving together of memories to make a blanket that can be cherished and is soothing. Stories need not be personal: they could be anybody's childhood stories.

The Knot is an important part of all the works in this series. Every knot speaks of a story from the past or present. It is technically a vital link and a metaphorical one, too.

Shield is of fragile black bangles. It is a covering, which is physically of no use in protecting. It is a clothing of the mind. It neither hides the skin nor protects.

Protection is a work derived from the belief that use of taita protects one from all ills. Here the work is about the protection from the past, present and future.

Waves is of jumbled threads where one cannot find the starting or the end of the thread. Trying to find ends is metaphoric of solving life’s puzzles. Memories are in layers and when cherished, come in waves.

The dream of seeing oneself on screen as a hero is another aspect of these works. When a director directs a play, his actors enact. Here I am expressing my deep desires of wearing artworks. Artwork is inseparable from the artist, since the artist has made the work. If the artist wears the works, he becomes a material of his own artwork.