Seema Kohli: Artist Statement
I work primarily as a multi-disciplinary artist, painter, poet and dreamer. My work is a constant meditation on the ways of imagining connections, and modalities of expression that ties in ideas around religious iconography, world mythologies, philosophies, literature, narratives, oral histories and myths into visuals and text. For me, artistic practice is an embodied practice that takes the form of paintings, sculptures, performance and spoken word. It resides in every gesture, movement, thought and expression, be it physical; in feeling, of speaking through the canvas and performances, as well as the meta-physical; artist as conduit to the primordial feminine life-giving energy. My work centers thematic around beauty, sensuality and spirituality which stem from particular concepts known for their universalities. I explore, engage and re-narrativize these concepts in order to develop my own living, breathing visual vocabulary – something that extends beyond the canvas or a performance even, and within my very being as an artist who is a seeker. Of particular importance is the concept of Hiranayagarbha or The Golden Womb, from which we have emerged, which is self-pervading and all encompassing. Related to this, is the concept of Shakti – the divine cosmic energy which manifests itself through female embodiment. Through these concepts channeled into my body of work, I am representing the idea of the living conscious being, so that each of these artistic expressions evoke in a viewer a sensitivity to the works’ own agency. Time or ‘Kaal’ have an important part to play in my re-telling. Every indicator of time – be it the aspect of continuity, repetition, duration or temporality, is in play with the physical artistic gesture and embodied feelings, including awareness and vulnerability.
My practice is an experimental journey that constantly seeks to transform and create new identities as well as vocabularies. These investigations into creating my own visual vocabulary manifests processes of decay, hybridization, birth and death, not as absolutes but as a way to make cognizant the idea of the one aspect that remains constant – our primordial energy source.