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Married to metaphors

Navneet Mendiratta / New Delhi March 31, 2007

Kriti Arora belongs to a school of thought that thrives on individual expression, says Navneet Mendiratta

She�s an artist who does not believe in convention and mediums cannot bind her. All of 34, Kriti Arora�s art derives inspiration from real life and yet plays with metaphors. Take her latest (which is also her first) solo at Palette Art Gallery in New Delhi titled �Inroads�bloodlines�. It is a complicated compilation of several metaphors that she absorbed during one of her travels to trouble-torn Kashmir in 2004.

�The trip was a personal pilgrimage of sorts � I was on a journey to trace my ancestors, my bloodline� We were driving to Chutumail, ahead of Kargil where the last Indo-Pak war took place. And while crossing Zojila pass we came across these fierce-looking men dressed in something akin to Indian Army uniforms. First, we thought they were terrorists, then our impression changed to Army jawans and eventually we found out that they were road builders from Bihar working with tar. The images were so strong that I just had to capture them on my camera,� says Arora.

What emerged was a body of work that brings alive the pain of survival among the road builders working at the high altitudes in Kashmir, the turmoil within the artist to trace her bloodline and toxicity of the situation � a political statement of sorts that surrounds their being.

And all of this in mixed media, close-to-life canvases in oil used along with ash to give the impression of tar. Life-size installations in fibre glass coated with tar supported by video-depicted molten lava and volatility of the situation.

But then, Arora belongs to a school of thought that thrives on individual expression. A 1995 pass-out from Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda, with a bachelor�s degree in fine arts (sculpture), she went on to bag a double masters degree � master of fine arts and film and photography � from Hamshire College, Amherst, University of Massachusetts in 1999. She also participated in two residencies in Paris in 2005 and 2006.

�The 10 years that I spent learning were perhaps the best in my life so far. Born to journalist parents, I was lucky to have that freedom of expression right from childhood. But it was only later that I could give form to my expression,� she says.

Incidentally, after passing out from Baroda, she tried her hand at teaching at the college itself for two years. �But I soon realised it was not for me. I found it more absorbing to make art of my own,� she says. And make art she has.

Though she�s had two solo shows in the US, Arora has preferred to be a part of group shows in India, that is till now. A member of Khoj Foundation in India that believes in experimenting as an integral part of art, Arora has been greatly inspired by Western art and is a great fan of F N Souza. �For me, it will always be mixed media works,� she states, �for what matters to me is not the medium but what I have to say.�

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Updated:23-11-09 10:55 hrs IST