artist's statement
reclaiming the circle
My research is concerned with personal identity and hybridity. My work involves
an exploration of imagery informed by post-colonialism. As an Indian woman,
I explore the continuum of cross-cultural negotiation made necessary both
by the historical occupation of East by West and by my displacement and relocation.
I have been culturally assimilated I am a bicultural hybrid. My work represents
this hybrid identity formed through personal, cultural and spiritual experience.
The work combines both conscious and unconscious influences and incorporates
symbols and circular motifs that reference elements of East and West. I merge
colors and materials associated with my Indian heritage (heena/henna, coffee,
tea, saffron, curry and cotton) with western notions of abstraction and aesthetics.
My work investigates post colonial and deconstruction theories of authors
Homi K. Bhabha, Jacques Derrida, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and others. I
also question Carl Jung’s notions of archetype and symbol as universals. The
circle may be considered a universal symbol, but I am reclaiming it as a personal
and culturally specific symbol. My interest in hybridity, identity and its
symbolic representation is at the center of my work, from a macro to a micro
level. I feel compelled to traverse the terrain between the traditional and
the contemporary, between East and West.