Who Am I

What am I? The memories I have lived through? Or the memories I long to relive? This constant question of existence has been haunting me during this pandemic, where one is forced to go inwards, dig deeper because now silence had a voice. This series of art works is a representation of how our structured memories define us. Each color signifies the memory that has helped an individual define his/her identity. But is that enough? Am I just the sum of my memories, bygone but longed for in present? And what does that make me? 

This work is a question to those experiences which we hold dear to help us define our identity but in reality we lose ourselves a little each time we try to bring back what is lost. Leaving us ultimately with the black and white of what we call life.

Who Am I 

This work is inspired by the solitude, warmth, kindness along with loneliness and anxiety that I experienced during this period of self lockdown.

It was during this silence that the chaos of my mind was visible to me. There was a self which was unconditional and also uncomfortable with my being. This work shares that, being in solitude or despair and balancing both is reality. And the truth that one is never alone.

The series of silent conversations that I had with myself were honest, warm, full of compassion and love. These conversations have probably always been taking place, but they were louder this time in the absence of the chaos of society, resounding within the chaos of my own thoughts.


In conversation with the one

This work depicts the Emptiness between partners even with infinite love around the world. The empty and undefined union of their bodies are standstill, while the color on other hand is in motion.

The truth of reality can be in stark contrast to the experience of the partners,   when they are finding peace from the other rather than finding it within, and sharing it with the other...

I believe, it is important to understand and identify love---love existing in nature, love that exists in every breath of life---which is not categorized and tabooed in a particular form or ritual.

Empty Vessel

This eponymously titled piece, is an attempt to capture the varied rhythms that come together in harmony in my personality, an attempt to find out who I am, and in the process discover who we all are.

The multifaceted and authentic nature of my personality is depicted by the four nude women, and their postures. The women are naked, and their bodies are transparent, echoing the true nature of the soul—pure, light-like. The vibrant colors in the background which also fill their bodies represent the dynamic, ever-changing nature of life. The women hold cacti close to their naked bodies undaunted by their prickly exterior, expressing a kinship with the cacti—having in common with them, the qualities of sensitivity and endurance. The women hold lotuses outward, reflecting their radiant beauty, and their capacity for creating beauty out of the suffering and chaos of the world just as a lotus grows, in mud.

Labdhi Self Portrait

Defined Anonymity

I wanted to depict the fluidity of our bodies, especially as we visualize them in our minds. In a society that judges women so harshly for their bodies, we often forget the ever-changing nature of our bodies, and the inter-relation between our physical body, and how we see and feel about our body. 

Of the many lines that make up the women in these paintings, which is the true contour of her body? Maybe all of them, and maybe none of them. 

Defined Anonymity

Becoming one from another, transcending to be present in the moment to touch the depth of the soul without playing the act of one’s given gender. This work shares the truth of understanding and accepting sex as not just an physical act of pleasure but an honest expression beyond movement and finding balance in the rhythm of love.

Journey of understanding universe starts from undressing the fears of one’s soul and understanding them unconditionally. My ode to acceptance of oneself. 

Unique and intuitive finger painting art work.

Mono ZenSex

Journey of understanding universe starts from undressing the fears of one’s soul and understanding them unconditionally. My ode to acceptance of oneself. 
Unique and intuitive finger painting art work

Kaya

Nature has been always the best teacher, I personally love how every season has its own definition. I wanted to use geometrical representation of my idea for a particular season and create various illusions throughout the art piece. As nature keeps changing every day i wanted to depict that change by creating various combinations , as one can see that with every angle various patterns can be identified.

Seasons

This work is inspired by the solitude, warmth, kindness along with loneliness and anxiety during this period of self lockdown.
Talking about my experience, it was during this silence that chaos of my mind was visible to me. There was a self which was unconditional and also uncomfortable with my being.
This work shares that, being in solitude or despair and balancing both is reality. And also, the truth that one is never alone.
The series of silent conversations I had with my self were honest, warm, full of compassion and love. These conversations are possibly making the same impact since and ever, but they were louder this time in the absence of chaos of society and present today within the chaos of my own thoughts.

Journey of understanding universe starts from undressing the fears of one’s soul and understanding them unconditionally. My ode to acceptance of oneself. 
Unique and intuitive finger painting art work. 

Inner Isolation
   I wanted to express my mental state in this Pandemic
 through my work. Coincidentally, the day I painted this,
 my partner was reading to me, an essay by James Baldwin
  about the creative process of an artist, which talked
 about state of aloneness that an artist must cultivate.
With this work of mine, I wanted to convey that isolation
  is neither dark nor lonely. There is reality, which I
 accept, that the Pandemic has created a dark whole, but
 the color of your spirit can never fade when you are at
             your most natural and true form.
Labdhi 2020

Inner Isolation

Zen Sex Metallic

This balcony garden was born out of the desire to create my own space in an unfamiliar environment. I bought these plants on a whim, the day before the entire country went into a lockdown, with no end in sight. I made these curtains from my mother-in-law’s old saree. Over time, as these plants began to flower, and the warm sunlight filtered through these curtains imbued the space with different hues, as I listened to music and wrote poems in this balcony, this space came alive, became my balcony garden, and gave new life to me.

With this series of paintings, I intended to portray the dynamic life-like nature of this balcony garden through the ever-changing perceptions of light, shadows and color, using geometrical shapes which are usually associated with being fixed or static. I wanted to convey that nothing is ever fixed, especially if it is alive.

My Balcony Garden

“But our humanity is our burden, our life; we need not battle for it; we need only to do what is infinitely more difficult—that is, accept it.” 
— James Baldwin

That the color of a man’s skin can call into question his ‘humanness’, reflects that we have lost sight of our own ‘humanness’. Art seeks to convey the truth of the human experience, in all its complexity, as only art can.

With this work, my effort is to share the faith I have in the capacity of love, and to accept the uniqueness of every human being irrespective of race, color, gender, and culture. I have consciously used geometry in these works, symbolizing the static nature of lines and shapes, in such a way that a change in the point of view changes the perception of the painting, lending it a dynamic quality within its fixed geometry.

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Labdhi Shah