The Digital Archive
In the wake of a gradual shift from the physical to the digital world, I have turned to scanography to engage deeply with the cultural and environmental elements native to the regional contexts. The objects and motifs I scan are imbued with narratives of origin and locality, reflecting the regional environment I inhabit which I feel is vanishing due to the continuous production of globally standardized objects that lack a personal, vernacular touch.Over time, these scanned elements have become building blocks for more elaborate ideas that explore the diverse facets of Indian culture and habitat. The method allows me to document and transform native motifs and objects into a digital archive, creating a repository of forms that represent the fragility and discontinuity of our cultural heritage. These works are a response to the pressures of globalization, which threaten to erase the uniqueness of local traditions and identities.The result is a series of digital compositions were native elements take on new life in imaginative and conceptual narratives.These works prompte viewers to see the cultural vernacular through a lens of both preservation and transformation.
The Gold Rush
The color gold, reminiscent of the Sun, has captivated human imagination for centuries, symbolizing beauty, value, and permanence. From ancient civilizations to modern economies, it has driven desires and shaped destinies. Gold is revered as sacred, imperishable, and rewarding, a material that has adorned the most cherished possessions of individuals across time.In contemporary culture, however, the allure of gold has transformed into a phenomenon marked by mass production and chemical synthesis. Its omnipresence in objects of daily life reflects an unrefined, counterfeit appeal, a reflection of human greed and the insatiable desire for the shimmery substance.
My shift to Chandigarh made me observe how the affluent are magnetically drawn to gold, not just as a substance but as a symbol of status. Its shimmer seemed to fuel a sense of arrogance, promoting an air of posh superiority among those who adorned themselves and their possessions with it. Yet, at its core, gold is simply a color that shines, a hue that reflects light but has been imbued with layers of meaning by human perception.
In this work, I collected various objects reminiscent of this obsession, objects that carry the allure of gold yet remain mundane in essence. These were composed in the form of an ‘anaar’, a firecracker known for its sudden burst of shimmering light that fades away quickly. The ‘anaar’ serves as a metaphor for human fascination with gold: a forceful yet fleeting display of brilliance that leaves behind only traces of its momentary glow.
The Gold Rush is a response to this behavior, examining how gold has become an integral yet paradoxical part of our cultural fabric. The work delves into the duality of human fascination—both its reverence for the natural splendor of gold and the relentless drive to replicate and consume it. By invoking the symbolism of the anaar, the work questions the lasting value of our obsession with gold: is it truly eternal, or just another illusion that burns brightly and fades away?
My Pleasure Garden
Following my recent shift to Chandigarh, I found myself captivated by the city’s exquisitely landscaped front yards—a grandeur reflected in the meticulously curated foliage of its residential lawns. The city’s annual “Best Lawn” competition underscores this collective commitment to greenery and beautification.
Nestled near the hills and blessed with favorable soil and climate, Chandigarh’s gardens flourish with a diverse variety of flora. These green spaces evoke a sense of land art, natural installations where personal creativity and environmental harmony intersect. The practice of cultivating these gardens feels like a quiet yet profound form of art—an intimate, individual expression of aesthetics and care.
Inspired by the beauty of these landscapes, I began documenting their intricate details through scanning varied parts of plants, capturing textures, forms, and patterns to create a personal archive. This effort seeks to digitize and preserve fleeting, perishable fragments of nature that belong to this region. The scanned images, with their organic intricacy, transform into motifs in their own right and become foundational elements for a larger composition I’ve titled My Pleasure Garden.
This work symbolically reflects India’s deep-rooted cultural affinity for adornment, presenting nature as both an aesthetic and conceptual framework. My Pleasure Garden encapsulates the essence of a culture that celebrates its environment as an extension of identity, inviting contemplation on how natural spaces shape our collective sense of belonging.
Alter Beauty
In the midst of observing urban life, where man-made structures dominate the landscape with their straight edges, hard surfaces, and monotonous simplicity, I began to explore the contrasting vibrancy and textural complexity of nature. This exploration gave rise to The Alter Beauty, a work that reflects on the juxtaposition of the natural and the man-made.Shifting the gaze from the overwhelming uniformity of urban design to the intricate irregularities of natural forms,through a process of flattening details from adjacent halves of forms merging the organic with the geometric. The resulting work mirrors this duality—vivid, textured elements of leaves and natural forms coexist with simplified, hard-edged,counterparts.
Each work becomes a reminder of how human presence reshapes and redefines the natural landscape.The work invites viewers to contemplate the coexistence of two forces: the resilience of nature and the imposing permanence of human creation.
My Pleasure Cupboard
In the intimate confines of my kitchen lies a pantry, a small but meaningful space dedicated to packed groceries. Amid the act of archiving and scanning objects, I began reflecting on the foods that bring joy to me and my family. The food items I chose to scan hold a duality—they are a source of deep delight, yet they sit outside the boundaries of what I "should" consume as someone managing PCOS. In creating this work, I sought to reclaim pleasure through the process of art-making, using the scanner as a tool of both documentation and transformation.
This project is deeply entwined with the cultural milieu of Punjab, where I live, and where snacks and rich foods are not just sustenance but emblems of community, celebration, and identity. Beyond the immediate, it reflects on India's celebrated culinary heritage—a long and intricate history of recipes, flavors, and rituals that bind us across generations.
My Pleasure Cupboard becomes a layered exploration: of personal narratives, cultural landscapes, and the intimate yet universal relationship between food and pleasure.It evokes both nostalgia and indulgence, inviting viewers into a space where the simple act of eating becomes a gateway to larger conversations about identity, health, and tradition. Like the fleeting joy of a favorite snack, the work exists as a moment of pause—a celebration of the everyday pleasures that sustains us.
Exhibition History
Encrypted I Curated by Lina Vincent I Apre Art House I 2023
Rooted I Curated by Sanjana Srinivasan I Terrain.art I 2023