Evanescence

"On the surface, an intelligible lie; underneath, the unintelligible truth."

This hand-embroidered work is ‘Bollywoodish’, somewhat ‘kitsch’, with its vibrant colours, beads, brocade and crystals. On inspection, the disintegrating halo and hanging threads intimate a somber reality. The work explores the Universal Law of the Impermanence of Life. Youth and beauty embroidered with delicate silk threads on fragile silk canvas suggest memento mori and tempus fugit. There is tension in suspending “the magic of the stopped moment” with the inevitable decay associated with time.

The title, “Loose Ends” signifies our journey’s end. Attempting to preserve my mother and my memories of her, I painstakingly recreated her, stitch by stitch - a gradual process, mimicking the stealth of the disease. I was unable to portray her intact, as the disease steadily intrudes into our psyches. The reverse side of the work alludes to our entangled, frayed and interrupted lives.