My earlier work depicted the female form but recently, I realized that the human figure was not necessary to present my thoughts.
The TALK series explores relationships, in which fabric bodices represent people. The body is now redundant, the clothes are a form on their own, and they can talk and think; our outer personas continue their superficial lives without our presence.
Every morning, as we get ready for the day, we subconsciously reach for our social skin. Our minds are a blur of images from advertisements, the television, Facebook updates, and memories of flawlessly airbrushed women in magazines. But who are we supposed to be today? By using fabric I hint at our materialistic nature, and the hollow bodices seem to lack substantive thought, floating on my canvases like a community gone adrift.
I was a fashion designer for many years and as an artist, I continue with the same creative process. Each piece is conceptualized on the computer through sketches, experimenting with color combinations, and moving the forms around on a screen before beginning to paint on canvas. After collaging the block-printed fabrics onto the canvas, I build layer upon layer of paint – scraping, scratching and reapplying – to resolve the negative space that surrounds my protagonists.
As a child in New Delhi, I was surrounded by old buildings and monuments from centuries ago. You see them here in the backgrounds I create, the scribbled-upon walls of my ancient playgrounds.
- Chandrika Marla
The TALK series explores relationships, in which fabric bodices represent people. The body is now redundant, the clothes are a form on their own, and they can talk and think; our outer personas continue their superficial lives without our presence.
Every morning, as we get ready for the day, we subconsciously reach for our social skin. Our minds are a blur of images from advertisements, the television, Facebook updates, and memories of flawlessly airbrushed women in magazines. But who are we supposed to be today? By using fabric I hint at our materialistic nature, and the hollow bodices seem to lack substantive thought, floating on my canvases like a community gone adrift.
I was a fashion designer for many years and as an artist, I continue with the same creative process. Each piece is conceptualized on the computer through sketches, experimenting with color combinations, and moving the forms around on a screen before beginning to paint on canvas. After collaging the block-printed fabrics onto the canvas, I build layer upon layer of paint – scraping, scratching and reapplying – to resolve the negative space that surrounds my protagonists.
As a child in New Delhi, I was surrounded by old buildings and monuments from centuries ago. You see them here in the backgrounds I create, the scribbled-upon walls of my ancient playgrounds.
- Chandrika Marla
