A poetic reflection of the fragility of the body

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Yardena Kurulkar’s current exhibition, The Body in Agreement, at Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai, is an attempt to further her ongoing personal examination into the human body and its relationship with nature. After her initial training in ceramics, the artist’s practice has been multidisciplinary and is expressed here through multi-layered etchings, video projections, 3D printed works, composite sculptures made of clay, brass and wood, and more.

A definitive work that highlights the evolution of her practice is Kenosis (2015), which means “to empty out" in Greek. It started her deep dive inside her human body, while also marking a departure from her earlier loop-based works. In Kenosis, she did an MRI of her own heart to “digitally excavate the organ" from her body.

Kurulkar then converted that into a 3D version, and therefrom created a clay replica of her heart. She then submerged it in water and captured its dissolution at regular intervals, 15 frames of which were chronologically arranged in a grid to form the visually cathartic work. “I am interested in the study of the material and their disintegration, sometimes also their renewal.

I am interested in capturing that process, the transformation—the movement from one stage to another," says the Mumbai-based artist. Her choice of clay and water as materials to work with are revelatory. As the porous, unfired clay appears to dissolve in the water gradually and the frames get muddier, it serves as a poetic reflection of the fragility of the body and its ephemerality.