Kunstformen in Animal Husbandry
Anju Chandran
My work process embraces two features: one explores the medium, the other traverses the image as it appears on paper. While working, the paper surface transmutes into skin, my skin. Each gesture that unfolds on the surface of the medium seems to mark my very dermis. I use colors from flower extracts, charcoal and thread to create my works for the fragile and organic quality they lend to my subject. Employing rice paper as the base, its flexibility and transparency lends the desired delicacy to my work. The stitches running across the paper as the border may look innocent, but in fact, each tack indicates a stab of pain on the surface of the paper/ my skin.
The process of conceiving an image for me is not a random one and I need to arrive at the particular image after having played and experimented with the idea and the memory of it ad nauseum. However, I can never predict the final outcome, and the surprising element that often appears on the surface of the paper is akin to the nervous thrill of a woman who is about to give birth. I particularly enjoy this sense of unpredictability and freedom while working on the Cyanotype print that is produced by UV rays from sunlight acting upon the image – a process that is unhindered by the rules and procedures that make up mainstream printmaking techniques.
The effects of environmental metamorphosis and mutation on the flora and fauna inspire me. Motifs from nature play a pivotal part in my practice and emerge as concerns in my work in mysterious and unexpected ways. I do not label my work as I feel that will restrict, frame and stifle my work unnecessarily. I like my work to breathe and remain open to elucidation by the viewer.
