this series preceded "7 elements". conceived a few years back,
it came out premature but alive, unlike its stillborn predecessors. it was a tough
one to nurture. i was improvising as i groped for bearings as a person & artist.
in the 3 years it took to complete, i had changed in sensibility, & aching to
begin what was to become "7 elements". still, i kept to its original style &
spirit. i like to think of it as a time capsule. of the time before i was
braver in dealing with those raw emotions, layering them with
metaphors & cuteness.
there are few more in this series yet unrealised. who knows, i might, in
nostalgic weakness, revisit them should i live long enough.
statement
loss is a part of life. this i accept. it’s the forgetting against which i struggle.
my work is a mnemonic for me to remember things that matter, lost along the way.
duplication, building redundancy prolongs memory across a proliferation
of files & media. though no copy's ever exact. each reiteration introduces changes. memory becomes transformed through those uncountable attempts to preserve it.
that too is a loss. the loss of authenticity.
coloured by the cartoons & comics of my childhood, i populate my universe with
characters as proxies for a moment or mood. in fixing these half-lives onto
a medium, i hope to hold onto or reclaim what’s gone.
in all these, i'm portrayed as an airborne jellyfish -- a creature as absurdly
fictional as my belief in my ability to staunch this loss. & whose form mutates as
i travel across these landscapes of loss.