Paheli #Chanchala | Fickle Fortune VI
Hand drawn screenprint with 22 carat yellow gold leaf (variations to the texture and finish of the gold make each piece unique).
Edition of 2
Image size H71 x W91 cm | unframed
Float mounted framed size H88 x W108 cm
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Description
Women | Water | Life
Paheli | Mystery
A dusty village arrival; a crowd of excited children; the unexpected calm of an ancient stepwell. And in its cool depths, beautiful, mysterious, a woman lost in contemplation. This moment was the genesis of Natasha Kumar’s latest collection, the Paheli, mystery, series, a meditation on Women | Water | Life.
What was on her mind, the woman by the still surface of the stepwell pool? What hopes and fears, prayers and pre occupations? The series imagines what they could be. Paheli #Jalanjali, water offering, conjures the swirl of her thoughts, a turbulent sea of possibilities, her prayer to Lakshmi. After all, did not Lakshmi emerge from such a swirling primordial sea to help the word find its way to good fortune, wealth and fertility. So she did, but what a whimsical goddess.
In nature, in action, Lakshmi is #Chamchala, unpredictable, like the zig-zag ripples of flowing water. Her blessings may fall like the gentle rain poured by the flying elephants in #Gaja Lakshmi. Her blessings may fill the #Purna-Kumbha, the overflowing vase, carved into the step well wall. Or not. In #Vahis, the book of ancestors, the pages are open to the names of generation past: in #Sapinda, descendants, its pages are tightly rolled, the names are yet unknown. Will Lakshmi’s #Suksham shakti, subtle strength, help her become the link between the two, creating #naya javaan, new life/ Perhaps that was the Paheli, the mystery, that the woman pondered by the still pool. Who can say.
