Made from cutoffs and abandoned prints that didn’t find space in earlier works, Ruchi plays with the idea of a shadow box by turning her earlier narratives inside out. Her famed ‘mushroom girl’ as well as other self-referential figures from previous pieces make an appearance, albeit as shadowy backdrops to an absent headliner. The absent female figure is filled in with words, an outlet for bottled in thoughts and mutterings. In salvaging from her studio, and revisiting these figures to create a shadowy landscape at odds with her earlier quest for ‘perfection’ Ruchi creates a new idiom, signalling a welcome change in direction.
A Place in the Sky, 2020
Acrylic, paper and text. 30.48 x 45.72 x 11.43 cms.
The Old Moon Revolution, 2020
Acrylic, paper, text and ambient sound. 15.24 x 25.4 x 5.08 cms.
All cultures have a fascination with the moon: its moodiness, its ability to disappear as if at will, its effect on the tides and cycles. It inspires a timelessness, a primitive urge to return to roots, a need to explore. Alongside the haunting melody of Lowlands, sung by 2010 Turner Prize winner Susan Philipsz, this moving work brings together Ruchi’s automatic writing and note making, with elements she has previously worked with. Ruchi channels her long-standing interest in space rocks and planets to create an intersectional plane, where laws of physics might apply, but the mind is free to wander, thoughts flow, melding the real with the imaginary.
Ruchi Bakshi Sharma
The Stargazer
Ruchi’s oeuvre is at once playful and introverted, self-referential and yet universally appealing in her approach to storytelling. She is the only artist to have previously engaged with a shadow box as part of her practice. Her multiple talents and interests find their ideal form in three dimensional or kinetic works. Her practice is informed by childlike inquisitiveness and a sense of wonder, and seeks to invoke these feelings in others. Discovering through this residency her long-dormant urge to create for fun, her two works bring to the fore her innate joy in experimenting with materials around her workshop.