A solo project by Shivani Aggarwal

‘Enmeshed’, a solo project by Shivani Aggarwal, courtesy New-Delhi based Studio Art was hosted at India Art Fair. An accompanying note by the artist states: “The rose petals transform inherently as if losing their tenderness and evolving into binding threads.

"Threads gain a life of their own and become powerful enough to violate the devices which appear to cut them. The benign and passive threads change their inherent nature to disregard these instruments, making them powerless."

'I have always had a fascination with the needle, the magic power of the needle. The needle is used to repair the damage. It’s a claim to forgiveness...' Louise Bourgeois

“The knitting needles are an exploration of maternal dilemmas, expectations and questions. The process of knitting or construction has connotations with warmth, home, protection and childhood. The powerful image of knitting has cultural preconceptions surrounding it , subverting and disrupting the notion of being passive and benign. The scale furthers the questioning of the unending feminine task of providing love and warmth.”

Under this mask,
Another mask.
I will never be
finished removing
all these faces.

- Claude Cahun

Annette Messager elaborates how it’s about exploring the relationship between tension and release, attachment and separation; threads are knit to sometimes cut or to shred. They repair at times and entangle at others , discovering the relationship using empirical objects. While sewing and cutting, the incisive instruments have the capacity to prick, hurt or cause pain and violate the skin or the body.

These instruments lose their original purpose and intention. The threads seem to “burst forth” creating intricate, swirling, patterns which are both shocking and compelling.The webbed mesh of red threads takes on the form of blood vessels, as though organically and systematically formed. The resulting image seems to be that of divulgence, emphasizing on some sort of copious loss or fullness of holding together. Being an artist means forever healing your own wounds, and at the same time endlessly exposing them.”