shilpa chavan

Lives and works in London, UK

Artist statement

Part relic, part rebellion, my practice begins with enquiry rather than medium. Moving between the intimate scale of the body and larger installations, I construct hybrid creatures and sculptural terrains where imagined states take form. I gather seemingly dissonant materials to work through questions of scale and autonomy. I distort scale, layer and assemble familiar and culturally coded materials and objects, releasing them from their prescribed functions. They begin to hover between body, object and apparition. This movement towards agency sits at the centre of my practice, bringing into view what is often overlooked so the ordinary can become strange, defiant and alive. Ultimately, I am driven by wonder and a singular curiosity: how can we rethink the relationship between touch, abstraction and performance, and how might that interplay hold stillness and flux?

Artwork