Creativity tinged with spirituality

Fragments’ is a an art show by Gopika Nath and Kathryn Mayers. The current body of works by Gopika Nath is based on stains and fabrics, whereas Kathryn Mayers works
with gouache on paper and work with textiles.

The artists say ‘the exhibition’s creativity is dealt in a spiritual way’ and the fabrics’ design and the colours on them impede the fundamental aspect of being. It takes away the essence of the practice of hand-crafting that gave us the famed textiles of this land.

The works which will be on display will be a new form of art which has been experimented in various ways before both in fabric work or mix medium entirely. Artist Nath is inspired to embroider, rather than paint on canvas. Whereas Mayers uses canvas as her medium of expression and has experimented with various forms of fabrics throughout her work.
The ideologies of the traditional practice of hand-crafting in ancient India along with Hindu myths form a key feature of Nath’s current research and expression.

“At a level, my work is also about self-expression, at its deepest level, where there is no value for it other than for myself and what it says about my life. I use the process of embroidery as meditation, as catharsis and transformation – all of which go into forming a spiritual process.” says Nath.

Mayers works with gouache on paper and Nath works with textiles. The works deal with textures of life.

For Mayers they are fragments of life that have been observed and remembered.
“For me ‘Fragments’ is about the essence of life, where the being is a fragment of the whole,” she says.

“My paintings from past several years depict spaces that are both ambiguous and specific, sometimes depicted as I found them, but most often have been created from fragments of observed architecture and spaces. Through careful attention to details of structure and surface, the process of painting mirrors, a building’s inevitable progression of morphing of architectural style and detail clothed in a palimpsest of texture and colour. They seem animated by a sense of spirit cycling through spaces and ordinary objects and suggest a narrative of presence through absence,” says Mayers.

Fragments will be on from August 7 to September 6 at Art and Aesthetic, Lado Sarai from 11 am to 7 pm.