Statement: Along The Way
In my new series of paintings ‘Along The Way,’ I reconnect with people I have met, befriended, sometimes left behind and occasionally forgotten. Over a decade ago, I moved from Mumbai to Paris, followed by Hong Kong and then to Boston. During this time, I built new friendships, tried new things, broadened my palette, and learned new languages, albeit the last is often disputed. In ‘Along The Way,’ I invite my friends to the studio by re-imagining them, as we reminisce about our transient friendship.
Drawing or more appropriately, doodling using a stylus on computer screen is an essential first step in my artistic process. I transformed these doodles into paintings using multiple layers of acrylic paint on canvas. I usually retain every stroke of the stylus, even a jitter of the stylus carries over to the final layer of paint as a deliberately painted line. In the tradition of Jean Dubuffet, these ‘portraits’ resist typification, standardization, or legibility. Instead, I have encoded the portraits with traces of personal anecdotes and shared moments.