Alien Landscapes

Beyond our vision and our perception bias, there are worlds that operate on rules different than our own. There are light waves that our eyes can’t perceive and sounds that our ears can’t hear and yet there they are operating alongside our own universe, ticking at their own pace and rhythm.

My Alien Landscapes bring together similar alien ecosystems of biomorphic elements and inorganic forms cohesively into a state of terraria imitating clusters. My works in this series are surrealistic, grounded in the strange and the whimsical, and significantly influenced by my fascination for narratives of magic realism, chaos theory, organic ecosystems, quantum mechanics, natural history, parallel universes, and magical beasties in their lush habitats among other things, the intersections of which allow for a lateral view and infinite possibilities through themes of exploration, new discoveries, symbiotic associations. And by my fascination with the idea of how a wee action , like the flap of a butterfly or the stroke of a brush on my side of the world could lead to a larger inconceivable impact on the other side.

These artworks are an agglomerate of elements from the natural world and the world of fiction, where a magical beanstalk, may be painted into existence alongside fungi, candy trails, constellations and mummy-esque cocoons, all seemingly abstract elements that typically may not belong together in the natural world, are brought together into a state of cohesive clusters.

This series explores our age of mutating ecosystems. Of the ever increasing noise and the constant friction between rigid systems that fray at the edges, often making way for more vibrant, flexible, inclusive systems, metamorphosing and morphing into surreal yet elaborate  bio diverse ecosystems of plankton, plastic, Pan’s labyrinth and jelly beans. Of micro plastics in our blood streams swimming alongside what may have been the last sigh of a stegosaurus as it watched fire fall from the sky, the thinning of the veil between the real & the surreal.

With these works I allow organic destiny to kick in. It is an exercise in following the breadcrumb trail and connecting the dots, allowing each piece of art to flourish organically like a lush terrarium or coral reef.  Some of these pieces have grown complex personalities of their own, evolving over the years, as I have added detail to them, creating a new story over a story, resulting in art that is richly emotive and complex. The materials I use to create these artworks stay true to theme with a mix of media like acrylic & oil paints, ink, and sometimes also latex, paper and metallic leaf. The many layers of color and line drawings are set using various application techniques, including those of fluid paint pours (the most organic and unpredictable of layers), spray painted elements, various resist media and the more structured layers of line drawings .

Akin to a tealeaf reader, I want the viewer to explore these works, mapping splatters, drips and an entanglement of lines and biomorphic clusters, and be witness to a lush lateral view which allows for new possibilities and magic.

StrangeScapes – This series is a continuation of the Alien Landscapes series and an exploration to transcend  my current work process and choice of media. It is an ongoing series of digital assemblages where hand painted elements from my many real world paintings are digitally taken apart, and are mixed with pieces that typically don’t belong together – digitally embellished and reassembled into whimsical clusters of mutated landscapes, strange beasties, candy trails, constellations, faux fungi and other absurdities. The resultant hybrids of these real world artworks and their virtual avatars are layered, rich, and  their merging more dramatic than the original pieces of art they were born from.While in its most basic form, these artworks exist as static digital assemblages, they can also be reprinted  and  hand embellished to create unique iterations of each artwork. I am currently also exploring the animation of  these artworks  for new media art displays.

More from the series : Grayscapes & Petriscapes are subsets in the AlienLandscapes series. Both these bodies of work comprise of mostly small works that are agglomerates of abstract imaginary ecosystems and biomorphic forms, inspired by my time spent being a student of biology. The grayscapes are a set of otherworldly inkscapes. Some of these pieces are sculptural, sprouting inked paper algae, fungi & wings. The artwork in petriscapes is inspired by faux taxidermy and specimen boxes, and comprises of a set of fantastical flora and fauna on painted discs.