In 2021, Ravindre Mardia of the ICAC gallery, Ahmedabad, floated a nationwide art competition which gave artists a framework of time in which to create five artworks of a certain size. Sangeeta took on the challenge and created two freestyle abstracts and three themed circular works. These will be exhibited at the ICAC gallery in February 2022.
This work is self-explanatory, it implies that we have lost our way in recent times, but if we seek light, it is right there, under all the muck, fog and shallow values. It is a plea to the viewer to do some inner spring cleaning with meditative practice.
A response to how we all have a network of friends in the Metaverse, but belong to a hidden constellation of soulmates in real life who we perhaps rarely meet. Here’s a quote by Madeline Miller, that echo that reality, “But in a solitary life, there are rare moments when another soul dips near yours, as stars once a year brush the earth. Such a constellation was he to me.”
It is inspired by the beautiful waters of the Lakshwadeep islands, which Sangeeta swam and snorkeled in, end of October, 2021. It also captures the purity of the sea when untouched by pollution, and the need to keep ocean ecosystems alive. When snorkeling, Sangeeta saw bleached coral… which she later realised, is dead coral!
Where she portrays how the Northern hemisphere has been guilty of consumerism and development models that have robbed wildlife of their natural habitats, even their very bodies. As the eye travels south of the work, there is hope as you see the full animals… but they are juxtaposed with a clock, warning us that many of these species will be extinct with the passage of time, if we do not save them.
This work mirrors the shift in consciousness that came in with the Pandemic, as it broke down excessive greed, watered down consumerism, taught people how important it was to focus on what really brings peace and happiness. One sees a transition from living in cities to living in serene, tranquil natural havens.