Scribed Series

As an artist living between two cultures, I find myself constantly translating. In recent work, I am exploring different aspects of language- script as form, legibility and illegibility. I ask the question- is communication possible beyond and outside of our conventional understanding of language? What is the potential of breaking down the coding of text and making it non referential-beyond specificity and context? How do we connect with different cultures and communities while retaining our individual languages and cultures? What is lost in translation?

The Scribed series is made by engraving on palm leaf scrolls (an ancient book form in South Asia) and then using this as a printing plate to obtain a mirror image on paper. The urge to inscribe and then to replicate defines the history of literary production and dissemination across the world for many centuries. Books are proofs of our existence in this world at a certain point in time and they mirror our inner selves. This work postures the artist as scribe and draws parallels between drawing and writing, making line a universal mode of expression. Lines and patterns replace words and images and create a language of their own. The rhythm of mark making, the graceful or staccato line, the pattern inherent in repetition and the texture of the substrate, all work together, forming a distinctive expression in each work.