Shivani Aggarwal paints strings, knots, bunches along with scissors, tongs and safety pin as a metaphor to describe social bonding and personal entanglement
She has been in love with threads since last ten years. Earlier, she used them on surface of the canvas and paint over it. later she realised that instead of using thread this way, she can paint the bunch of threads and combine it with other tools like scissor, tongs and nail cutter, to talk about bondages, attachments and release in her artworks. Shivani Aggarwal has put up her latest collection at Studio Art Gallery. The show is titled Enmeshed and the works “explore the relationship between tension and release, attachment and separation.”
Thread has been used as a metaphor to describe social bonding, gender differences and relationship entanglements. “Through threads, I have showed how humans are bound by several restrictions. I have also not forgotten that threads are instrumental in mending and putting two or more pieces together. So, they are used to convey a healthy bond that keeps us together. My works discover relationships using every day objects like scissor and other ordinary tools. The instruments are sharp and can prick, hurt or cause pain and violate the body. These tools lose their original function and intention to become and do something else,” said the artist.
In her works, Aggarwal has created intricate and swirling patterns. The webbed mesh of red thread takes on the form of blood vessels, as though organically and systematically formed. Since Enmeshed is all about human bonding, she has deliberately used red coloured thread in her works. “Red describes pain and suffering. It further deepens the definition of a relationship,” said she.
Tools like scissor, cutting an attachment coming out of the bunch of thread suggests freedom from all restrictions that give us pain and stress. “Someone rightly said that relationships are like a string of thread, once broken it is difficult to put them together. The bunch signifies the trouble and pain that a confused relationship can bring in our lives. Other tools like tongs and safety pins are metaphor for putting things together,” said Shivani.
One of the her work is a photograph, printed on the canvas. Here she has painted gold petals that are sewn on the red shirt. “Gold petals are used in some of my other works too as they are a symbol of love and love is an attachment too. The photograph of red shirt is used as a metaphor for outer appearance or a human body, which is otherwise a free soul, but when emotions, relationships grip us, we find ourselves bound by so many things. We should look forward to free ourselves from those bondings that do not allow us to grow and move on,” explained Aggarwal who finds painting threads on the canvas therapeutic. “Ask those who are into knitting or weaving and they will tell you that when they are engrossed in the activity they do not think of anything else. Similarly, when I paint these threads I am away from the mundane issues and I find solace in these thin, long strands. The paintings are such that often people confuse them with real threads. But the way everything is put on the canvas, the message is easily conveyed to the viewers,” said she. The exhibition continues till March 2.
