Shivani Aggarwal

How would you characterize the evolution of your creative process since your years in college, in terms of both influences and output?

My work has evolved at many levels since my days at the art college in Delhi. The time I spent at the Wimbledon Art School had been especially very creatively charged, which helped me develop my visual language; also the distance from home made me consider images and...

How would you characterize the evolution of your creative process since your years in college, in terms of both influences and output?

My work has evolved at many levels since my days at the art college in Delhi. The time I spent at the Wimbledon Art School had been especially very creatively charged, which helped me develop my visual language; also the distance from home made me consider images and elements I had been overlooking. The work took a definite line of thought from here; so much so that all my work over the last five years has been based on it. I have tried to search for a medium which best described my intentions and this has made me work in numerous media. I have been influenced by many cultures and their art, like Pakistani contemporary miniatures and Japanese minimalism, which I came across and interacted with while traveling to these countries and this helped my visual language in terms of achieving minute detail and presentation.

You work in a variety of media ranging from cloth and embroidery to acrylic and photography, sometimes even fusing some of these. Does your choice of medium depend on what you want to portray, or does the final image depend on the medium chosen?

My choice of medium generally depends on the idea I am working on, and it changes accordingly as the thought develops. Every medium makes me discover something else about the same thought, like the photograph of cloth and the cloth painted on canvas (same cloth) would mean different things. Every medium opens another range of meanings which I very carefully work on, sometimes while fusing two mediums even discovering a totally new space between the two to express what I could not have with just one.

You often note that your art is highly layered, can you tell us more?

My art had been revolving around the concept of layering, both in terms of material and concept. Materially, as I would put layers of cloth, paper over the images I had been using, to the most recent layering of lace over a female body in a photographic work. Conceptually I use ‘layering’ as a means to hide or cover the real thing be it the body or the mind. Layers also bring social norms and boundaries to my mind, these layers are something that our minds and bodies are covered with.

The ideas of clothing as a social construct and a means of identity are intrinsic to your art. What exactly do you want your works to communicate to viewers?

I would like the viewer to understand and feel more than what appears in my work. The work should make them understand the inherent poetry. I would like my works to communicate that clothes are like appearances; we put on just another layer to cover or hide or to be a successful being in the given culture or society, it only appears to be a symbol of identity and not the identity.

Would you call your art feminist? In your opinion, does your gender play a significant role in what you create?

I will not deny my art being called feminist, as it does come from a feminine understanding and sensibility. My gender does play a significant role in my art practice as there are some issues largely dealt with by women, be it culture, society, home, children and the physical or biological aspects of it. I experience life as a woman, and it does sieve through into my art as I use many autobiographical elements and elements to which I feel a deep sense of attachment.

Can you tell us a little about the directions in which you see your creative practice heading now?

I see my art practice developing more on the same lines, although I want to work and develop more in terms of concept and thought along with inventing new ways of expression. I would like to work in more than one medium and work towards merging the two like sculpture and projection, apart from continuing to do what I am doing.