Angeli Sowani's new series at Grosvenor Gallery, London

Angeli Sowani's work avoids giving easy closure on the many options that it opens up for the viewer and for the artist herself. Her new series of works takes place at Grosvenor Gallery, London. The artist in her note to 'Vaahan' states: ‘What do you paint’ is a question I am always asked ... and while the question is simple, there is no simple answer. I do not want my work to fit into a neat ‘slot’ or ‘style’ or to tell the viewer what to think.

She adds: “I prefer to push my work into new and unexplored areas and leave it for the viewer’s imagination to unravel the meaning. In my current body of works I have taken this further using industrial paint, religious threads, paper collage, tibetan prayer flags ... and a blowtorch.

According to her, watching Mumbai burning on the television on November 26, 2008, was when she first took a blowtorch to canvas, each burnt mark in her mind a life lost to the continuing violence. Ideas poured out as she worked with this new medium. The artist started to scorch the canvas and see where the patterns would lead me…to explore how far I could push the material before it was destroyed. I found that even in destruction there was fresh creation as shapes of birds, flames and whorls emerged, cut from the burnt canvases.

“Surprisingly, the intense concentration and focus required to work with this medium was calming, almost meditative ...and through it I learnt how vulnerable material is when touched by fire which seemed a fitting metaphor for the fragility of our lives. ‘Vaahan’ meaning ‘carrier’ symbolises to me the medium through which thought and passion are brought together to create meaningful art. By using the distinct and different medium of fire, I hope to challenge the viewer to think about the delicate balance of our lives and the fragility of being ...” she concludes.