'Therein & Besides' by Sheela Gowda

London based Iniva presents Sheela Gowda's first UK solo that also includes a new commission. The Bangalore based artist is known for her large-sized sculptural installations that draw upon common objects and everyday materials used as the starting point. Her usage of diverse materials is comprised of both an investigation into their physical qualities and source.

Iniva creates exhibits, publications, education and research projects that engage with a spate of new ideas and debates in the contemporary art world that reflect the current cultural diversity. For this exhibit at the spacious gallery overlooking Rivington Street, she has explored a new set of materials to create a scintillating sculptural work. ‘Of all people’ is the new work, made of countless wooden chips.

Roughly carved into votive objects by craftsmen, they form part of a captivating composition of frames and doors that are painted in shades of emerald green, pink, off-white etc. They reveal the marks of weathering. The viewer is prompted to recalibrate their engagement of the work from different heights as well as perspectives.

Her works juxtapose abstract forms with pointed references to society. Having trained as a painter, Sheela Gowda’s diverse art practice blossomed in the 1990s, as she also tried out sculpture and installation. The artist’s visual idiom responds to the contemporary world’s complexities like its violence and contradictions.

While she has featured in many curated group shows, this solo is an opportunity to view her oeuvre in a larger context. As she reveals: “I work towards layers of meaning even while trimming the form to the extent possible, where the source or the reference is suggested, but not (always) stated literally.'

Initially, she selects and tests a material for its physical/ conceptual attributes. What will it do? How can the material be transformed and what structures can it make possible? This results in creations that are pared down to abstract forms, which remove them from specific socio-economic context, albeit contain a residue of its source, made perceptible to the viewer.