Rithika Merchant: Pillars of Fruit and Bone
Tarq is elated to announce the forthcoming solo exhibition Pillars of Fruit and Bone by Rithika Merchant. Building on the work from her Terraformation series, shown at the Eleventh Asia Pacific Triennial, the fifteen paintings in this show explore ideas of building a sustainable utopia, away from the Earth.
According to Dr. Cleo Roberts-Komireddi, who writes about the show, 鈥淢erchant鈥檚 conjuring of this beguiling world and all its minutiae is rigorous. She describes her creative immersion as an 鈥渁ct of self-soothing鈥� and a way to allay her climate anxiety. As part of this process, she writes alongside her painting practice, making notes on the many structures, taken from built environments of the past, from fiction and the natural world, that inform her creature鈥檚 habitats. Whilst the images she creates are ones of novelty, there is a nostalgia that weaves through this universe.鈥�
As usual, Merchant uses 鈥渂eings鈥� or characters that are posed as proxies of humans in Pillars of Fruit and Bone, this time, to connect with the concept of abiogenesis鈥攍ife emerging from non-living matter billions of years ago. On her style, Roberts-Komireddi says, 鈥�...Merchant paints in a way that attempts to find and reflect on our place in the universe...鈥�
While earlier series like Birth of a New World and Terraformation examined the departure and initial settlement, Pillars of Fruit and Bone contemplates sustainability and growth. Roberts-Komireddi goes further to say, 鈥淚n Merchant's symbolically rich images she elides diverse cosmological references and ecosystems to give an impression of what life may look like in future worlds.鈥� The title evokes an image, perhaps symbolic of the delicate balance between life and death, growth and strength. Merchant鈥檚 environments or entities rebuild from first principles when given the opportunity to start anew, unburdened by our current world's mistakes.
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Tarq is elated to announce the forthcoming solo exhibition Pillars of Fruit and Bone by Rithika Merchant. Building on the work from her Terraformation series, shown at the Eleventh Asia Pacific Triennial, the fifteen paintings in this show explore ideas of building a sustainable utopia, away from the Earth.
According to Dr. Cleo Roberts-Komireddi, who writes about the show, 鈥淢erchant鈥檚 conjuring of this beguiling world and all its minutiae is rigorous. She describes her creative immersion as an 鈥渁ct of self-soothing鈥� and a way to allay her climate anxiety. As part of this process, she writes alongside her painting practice, making notes on the many structures, taken from built environments of the past, from fiction and the natural world, that inform her creature鈥檚 habitats. Whilst the images she creates are ones of novelty, there is a nostalgia that weaves through this universe.鈥�
As usual, Merchant uses 鈥渂eings鈥� or characters that are posed as proxies of humans in Pillars of Fruit and Bone, this time, to connect with the concept of abiogenesis鈥攍ife emerging from non-living matter billions of years ago. On her style, Roberts-Komireddi says, 鈥�...Merchant paints in a way that attempts to find and reflect on our place in the universe...鈥�
While earlier series like Birth of a New World and Terraformation examined the departure and initial settlement, Pillars of Fruit and Bone contemplates sustainability and growth. Roberts-Komireddi goes further to say, 鈥淚n Merchant's symbolically rich images she elides diverse cosmological references and ecosystems to give an impression of what life may look like in future worlds.鈥� The title evokes an image, perhaps symbolic of the delicate balance between life and death, growth and strength. Merchant鈥檚 environments or entities rebuild from first principles when given the opportunity to start anew, unburdened by our current world's mistakes.
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