Drawing The Line I India Habitat Centre I Delhi, India
2012
Drawing the Line was my first solo exhibition at the India Habitat Centre, Delhi in 2012. The exhibition brought together an intersection of various types of work ranging from linear drawing compositions on paper such as ‘Black Drawings’, ‘Chiaroscuro’, ‘Pen Drawings’, to spatial drawing sculptures such as ‘Drawing Sculpture: Wire’, to a month-long collection of fallen hair, preserved in individually dated packages displayed directly on the wall. Many of these works were at an early stage of development at the time and would subsequently evolve into full-fledged series and more extensive bodies of practice. Curated through an intentionally minimal spatial arrangement within the exhibit hall, the works not only interacted with each other but also with the surrounding space they were situated in. Rather than overlooking or treating the architectural elements like corners and structural columns as a neutral backdrop, they were activated by deliberate placements of the works, such as Black Drawings compositions utilising the edges of corners as a continuum of space, thereby indirectly expanding and flowing across the architecture of the exhibition space.
Press Release: My artistic practice is highly inspired by a profound interest in nature and, by extension, in human life. Thus landscapes and architecture are themes I often relate to at an abstract level, whereas lines have always been the medium of my expression and exploring it further is a constant research. The greatest source of inspiration in my practice comes from being receptive toward things, which otherwise sadden or frustrate me, and how my aesthetics respond to it. Things that could go unnoticed, initially become the inspiration and then part of the work – whether using broken hair as a medium to define the line or using scratches – an empty pen leaves on the paper.
Drawing the line is an attempt to explore the possibilities of elements, from broken hair to architectural structures- from organic to inorganic materials, which define the line. It is also an attempt to understand the meaning of drawing, beyond its conventional sense, and what happens when a line leaves the paper and enters the space, what happens when a line moves, stops, breaks and moves again.
Engaging in the repetition of two dimensional lines in my work becomes both form and sculpture, which combines softness and hardness, opacity and translucence, that it is pictorial and sculptural, two dimensional and three dimensional, vertical and horizontal, order and disorder. Through this I envisage drawing as a spatial exploration poised somewhere between installation and abstract line drawing.
