The Offering
Oil paint and polyester body filler on galvanized steel; oil paint on linen; mixed media on paper; oil paint on wood
Overall dimensions: 84” x 48” x 24” inches
2024-25
The Offering (2024-25) draws from various influences from my time in Mexico City, combining drawing, painting and sculpture. Frequently encountering the multi-tiered ‘ofrenda’ form during the Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebration – the home altar in remembrance of loved ones who have passed; led me to thinking about rituals around the act of ‘offering’ and the sculptural quality of altars common in many cultures. The pyramidal structure, it’s personal, often improvised construction and it’s open display – in which small and big objects connect to form an installation rooted in ancestral tribute and remembrance; became the conceptual beginnings of this work. The central form is constructed in galvanized steel, and then painted in oil paint. Maps, scabs, landscapes from one’s past and present swim through the surface, connecting with windows of pigment on paper and linen. The smaller works draw from anthropological objects, images of burial sites, makeshift urban architectural arrangements (common in both Mexico City and Mumbai, where this work was made); and finally from the radical writer, philosopher, nun Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz’s poem First Dream, that describes the journey of the human soul during a single night, from darkness and ignorance to the pursuit of truth and knowledge.