Artist Statement
My work draws from thematic qualities of south asian cultural influences, maximalist art and design, and aims to achieve the visual, voyeuristic effect of peering through someones window at night, in all creating an interesting visual overload.
My material list includes oil and acrylic paint, charcoal, digital media, 3D materials like silicon and texture paste, and copper plate etching. . With my mother being a jewelry designer, a lot of my work in relation to ornamentation comes from my childhood, constantly being exposed to and fascinated with her drawings.
Thematically, I create a contrast, embellishing imagined figures with Indian ornamentation—clothes, wallpapers, jewelry with stereotypically "ugly" features—body-hair, big noses—creating a dynamic tension to culminate a stereotypically "beautiful" yet uniquely intricate visual. By juxtaposing notions of beauty and ugliness, with inspirations from South Asian miniature paintings, side-profile caricatures emerge as a significant motif within my work. The side-view offers me a deliberate avenue to scrutinize these specific features I aim to illuminate. The figures become extensions of myself, blurring the lines between caricature and self-portraiture to capture an essence where identity merges with cultural imagery.
Visually, I would like for my paintings to mirror the experience of peering through someone's window at night- I think about the act of observing and how it often escapes our conscious attention. It's about capturing visually captivating moments that prompt introspection. Whether glimpsing a family dinner, a cluttered room, or an horrendous interior, the feeling of viewing—both guilt and captivation—evokes a voyeuristic intrigue that I aim to embody in my art.
