Material artist Gunjan Chawla Kumar's artworks signify themes of metaphysics, and the elemental relationship between matter and movement.
In her current exhibition, 'Sifr' — on view at Delhi's Exhibit 320 till January 26 — Chawla has brought over 60 works in muslin, paper and pigment that explore presence, absence, stillness and motion.
“'Sifr', for me, is the point where material and spirit collapse into one another,” shares the artist. “It is an attempt to listen to matter at its most elemental: pigment, earth, fibre, and to allow each gesture to reveal what lies between presence and erasure. In these repetitions, I look for the moment where a form becomes a movement, and a movement becomes a thought.”
The India-born, Chicago-based artist is trained in textiles. Her works have been displayed at several places across the globe — Chicago’s Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, the Donnelley Foundation, the Chicago Artist Coalition, and the National College of Arts in Lahore, Pakistan.
In bright red, yellow and blue, the artist forms different shapes, and formations.
Chawla’s works include the usage of natural pigments, handwoven cotton, clay from North India, and river sediments from Chicago, US.
The exhibition highlights Chawla's exploration of various shapes and forms, especially the cone, whose spiralling structure symbolises movement and continuity.