URBAN ON THE EASEL
Tanya Goel’s recent solo exhibition in Delhi brought to the surface the intricate cartography hidden beneath patterns that could be deciphered by concentrated observation
When Tanya Goel was a child, someone asked her to write what she wanted to be. She spelled ‘artist’ wrong. Since then, she’s hardly put a foot wrong. After a solo show at Delhi’s Nature Morte Gallery this month, Goel’s work will feature in the upcoming Sydney Biennale. And some of her pieces are already part of the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the United States.
When asked to define the approach that unifies her work, she says that she’s fascinated by the things-in-between, words that are conveyed by gestures. She doesn’t want viewers to focus on anything particular in her work, but rather derive meanings by looking at repetitions. Her interest in urban grids forms the base of her practice. “It is interesting how the grid manipulates me on different levels. My work begins with it, and somewhere down the line, I start breaking it down. Of course, there cannot be complete anarchy in chaos. Balance is important, so that there is communication,” she says.
Goel makes her own pigments from charcoal, aluminum, glass, mica and detritus from architectural demolitions. “I don’t want the colour to be of a specific tone, but like it to surprise me,” says Goel, who is writing a book on new theories of colour informed by the loss of physicality owing to the onslaught of digital images.
“That is how varied unclassified emotions find a place on the canvas. For me, breaking down of material (waste) is like understanding it better. What emerges is always a surprise.”