As an Indian artist based in London, Srabani’s memories are coloured by life in India and Europe. She often reimagines ordinary objects to retell stories of moments that transcend the boundaries of geography.
With a degree in Ceramic Design from Central Saint Martins, and placing her practice at century old heritage brickworks HG Matthew in rural Buckinghamshire, her work challenges the scale and forms associated with ceramics.
Consisting of large ceramics and works on paper, Freedom’s Flight is a visual feast of form, scale, surface and texture, with fine monochrome detail worked layer upon layer. The ceramic sculptures made from hand-coiled stoneware clay, resemble writhing bodies whirling and straining to break free. Delicate black inlaid patterns adorn the undulating surfaces of abstract feminine forms. The oversized paper works, that combine drawing and collage, are close up studies of personal moments. Made in the year of the Pandemic, it is a recount of the emotional roller coaster that has come to every town and home around the globe.
Srabani uses ceramic to express the body’s struggle against being held imprisoned; in the year freedom flew away. The heavy black marking swirl about the forms, changing tone and nuance like words in a story. The iron fetters seem to tighten their strangle hold. The dark rivers of tears run like seeping stains. Swirling frills tell of the daily dance of domesticity. The contrast of the flat of paper akin to the wide panoramic vista of the sky, tells happier tales of choosing the freedom to fly in the face of this imposed captivity.
Being a woman and mother, Srabani gives voice to a woman’s experience of this time, unrelenting in its demands on our body, hearts and minds. She imagines hearts turned inside out for all to see and savour as our own. Many in body, this flight of freedom has made us one in soul.
A percentage of the proceeds from this show will go towards supporting the women of Navchetna who are combating deadly shortages in essential support and supplies due to COVID 19 . Navchetna is a network of 30,000 women, survivors of destitution, desertion and domestic brutality reaching out to remote interior villages in rural Maharashtra.