Kinetic outlook on life

Delhi-based Malayali artist Merlin Moli’s recent kinetic series titled Void Mechanics is a reflection of the way we think and feel
Merlin Moli with her kinetic art piece
Merlin Moli with her kinetic art piece

KOCHI: Like most of us, the pandemic outbreak and many lockdowns that followed stressed out Delhi-based Malayali artist Merlin Moli.

This is when she set out to explore unusual mediums she had worked in her artistic career that spans over a decade. She twirled iron wires and shaped them into various forms to create her recent multi-disciplinary series titled Void Mechanics. Merlin’s series has over 25 installations.

The series offers a sneak peek into the mindset of society. It is a subtle reminder that regardless of the awareness and empowerment we preach when it comes to certain ideologies and practices — especially those that define womanhood — we are still hesitant to encourage alternative schools of thought. Merlin, a Thiruvananthapuram-native, conveys such philosophical conundrums involving social thinking and human anatomy using her kinetic wires. The artist, who is a graduate in ceramic art from the College of Arts and Crafts in Chennai, has portrayed a headless mannequin of a woman with a spring projecting from its head, to symbolise the silenced women in Afghanistan.

“The works question the many of the aspects of our society. Like the mannequin installation, which addresses the way the Taliban chopped off mannequins in Afghanistan. I was inspired by the works of Pablo Picasso and his style of depicting the human body too,” she says.

A homemaker, she also represents the struggles of everyday women through pieces like Aesthetically Silenced, Growing Silence on a Table and Chained. Among the exhibits part of her recent series, the life-sized animal-human figure titled The Journey which has eight legs denotes the race every modern man is subconsciously part of. Three lip sculptures made using fibreglass is tied up and adorned with pearl and flower motifs. The installation reflects the way society decorates submissiveness in women, and it is aptly titled Aesthetically Silenced.

Growing Silence on a Table shows a plate filled with rusted chains and teacups with springs.
It is a reflection of the lives of women who are tied up inside the four walls of Indian households. “As a female artist, I make it a point to predict these pre-defined roles of women. Cooking and taking care of family are always their established duties. The fact that these practices are still rampant even in this digital era encouraged me to make these installations,” says Merlin who plans to take her new series to various other art galleries across the state and beyond.

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