Symbols of Care and Nurturing

Symbols of Care and Nurturing explores the panorama of caring and tending, articulated through a feminine lens. It is a narrative of the self, of human relations, of the bonds we nourish with nature. Uniting nine women artists, practicing in different mediums, this exhibition delineates a macrocosm in which each work of art is a window into the intricate web of nurturing that sustains us. It narrates the careful tending of memories, and past experiences – an introspective journey of the self.

The exhibition tends to be an observatory, a source of wisdom from the earth mother, an insight into the harmonious existence of life in nature. It speculates one recurrent intrinsic theme among the nine artists, which expresses the transformative power of caring and nurturing in shaping identities, strengthening bonds, and fostering resilience. May you discover the subtle yet powerful ways which cherish life, being in the ambience of your own thoughts and experiences, as you journey through this exhibition.

Installation View

Bindu Kasinadhuni

‘A Thousand Cuts’ features ten compositions of patterns derived from natural phenomena. These works of art are based on a collection of pictures that I took on my walks along the Western floridian coast. They are magnified interpretations of simple, naturally-occurring structures; an elementary approach to an in-depth study of diverse textural elements. The pieces in this series reflect a range of flora and fauna, including complex leaf vein networks, long striations on plant stems, delicate but bold rings on the stump of a live oak, intricate geometry on unopened flower buds, and sinuous waveforms of the ocean. My aim was to maintain the visual delight of complex, colored objects through the study of size and shape variations – translating these compositions through thousands of cuts on paper. I chose to recreate these motifs by cutting them out of paper, a process which I had attempted in my earlier projects in surface design. The task was meticulous and incredibly challenging, but 30 years of practice designing textiles lent me the diligence and patience to make the process cathartic, almost meditative. Each representation is a distribution of thousands of labyrinthine cuts which the eye then transforms, revealing to the viewer the ‘whole’ creation. Ensnaring these compositions in between transparent sheets is an opportunity to reflect on the ephemerality of the moment captured, and the inevitability of death and decay.

Manisha Sethi

I work with terracotta clay and porcelain to make sculptures using hand building techniques involving slab work, pinching and press moulding. I use various pigmented like stains and glazes to further finish these high fired artworks in a kiln. Further I touch upon themes like universal human values and gender equality with culture and heritage in the background. I personally feel that aesthetics in the art intertwined with important themes can bring change in the society and can be really empowering for anyone engaging with it.

Neena Singh

My art is intricately linked with my life which compelled me to explore the themes of selfhood, renewal, rejuvenation and transcendence through the metaphor of landscape. To me, Nature offered limitless generative possibilities of ART, of LIFE. Through the motifs of Nature, the artist in me is on an inner voyage to discover a universe and to create a space which enables me to breathe fresh air. In my view, calling these paintings abstract landscapes will be reductionist. My art is a testimony to John Pollock’s statement that each artist paints himself. Looking at the expanse projected on my canvas, I assure myself that I finally broke away from boundaries that were unjust and unfair. The realization makes me free.

Nisha Dhinwa

My works represent the life cycle of various living beings in nature such as insects, birds, flowers, plants etc. Through my works, I want to elaborate about the most essential part of our ecosystem and the importance of coexistence with nature. While rendering the details, textures and characteristics of these micro beings in nature, I also want to create awareness about focusing on the smaller things in life, as i believe that is the root of our growth. The significance of my visual composition is disguised in its mundane simplicity and freedom of expression inspired from Individual Perception towards life. I am currently engaged in creating a unique fusion of collages and etching techniques in my recent artwork. By combining the techniques of chine-collé and etching, I am exploring and expressing my ideas on paper. As I prepare to complete my masters in graphics, I plan to delve into the study of insects and fashion, examining the relationship between the two in my artwork.

Rashmi Pote

As an artist, I am a story teller. My work is greatly influenced by literature – a new book, a poem, a quote, or even just a single beautiful word. For me, literature and art always work together in synergy. Literature inspires art and art creates magical stories. The two are inseparable; two parts of a whole. Being a self-taught, mixed media and collage artist, breaking the window of conventions and not following the rule book has become an aesthetic habit. My best teachers have been the mistakes that I learn from, and continue to grow further with, as an artist. I enjoy pushing the boundaries of the various mixed media, materials and techniques that I use, to constantly innovate and experiment in my art practife, and to tell a unique story. The sustainability movement has deeply influenced my art practice too and I constantly strive towards minimizing waste through creating sustainable art, with found objects and recycled materials. In the fusion of mixed media, collage and printmaking techniques, I have found a joyous and organic style that truly resonates with me. One of the reasons I love collage so much is that even a tiny scrap of paper has the ability and the opportunity, to be a part of an amazing artwork and narrate a story. My art philosophy: As Andy Warhol said, “Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.”

Riya Chandwani

Born into a family deeply scarred by the traumatic memories of displacement and forced migration during the Partition of 1947, my work explores the interplay between present and past traumas. I focus on inter-generational memories and knowledge systems, inherited family archives, and the quest for a sense of home.I aim to understand how the body preserves and transmits colonial and postcolonial recollections across generations. I grew up listening to all the stories and memories of Partition. And after how they migrated house to house in search of home. I work across mediums that include paper burn, archives, painting, photography, installation, drawings, sounds and videos. My grandparents migrated from Larkana, Sindh (which is now in Pakistan) at the time of India-Pakistan partition. My works explore the concept of home, displacement, borders, indigenous identity and existence and imprints of time which connect to our past and present. I explore various media like paper burn to show the imprints of the time and violence emerged from all those stories. I chose gateway paper to show as a skin. I see this language as a metaphor to speak for the forgotten or lost narratives. In my works are stories from folklore to present times that lend to each other new and cumulative language, and contexts. I do symbolic drawings which reflect time. Also archivals are the main part of my project.

Shalini Dutt

I believe that art is a way for me to understand myself and the world better, often using old memories, materials, yarns and fabrics, that inevitably are linked to some person, an incident, a place and time gone by and have a story to tell.

Shayonti Salvi

For me, being a ceramist is in many ways a testament to my love of art, architecture and nature. What amazes me about ceramics, is its use of all the five elements of nature and for that, it is to me, a truly complete medium of expression! I have been attracted to art and nature ever since I could remember. Since I was a child, I have been camping in the wilderness with my family and now I am a scuba diver. Nature and Art is the basis of it all. Whether I’m exploring an interesting use for a piece of textile that I have come across, or attempting to go organic, it all stems from these two loves. After being exposed to various media during my art studies, I found clay to be the one that resonated with me the most.

Shraddha Kamat

I feel deeply connected to the simplicity of nature, making my art a vivid reflection of my inner self and the inherent beauty of the natural world. As a mother and a woman, I have sensed an integration with Mother Nature herself. Her subtle tenderness, gentleness, simplicity, and naivety resonate deeply within my paintings. To me, Mother Nature embodies spontaneity, self-illumination, self-existence, and nobility. Within her essence, I discover poetry, which serves as the soul of my work. In my art, I express the experience of blissfulness and tranquility with prakriti, or Mother Nature, within my inner self. This profound connection inspires a ‘Shant Rasaa Bhaav-a feeling of peace and serenity, one of the nine rasas described in Chitrasutra. Through delicate, subtle rendering, using fine, small strokes and the dimensions of watercolors, I depict the essence of this tranquility. My work aims to evoke a sense of inner peace and harmony, mirroring the serene and harmonious spirit of the natural world.