We were delighted to support the exhibition titled ‘In These Verses I Find Home’ by Remen Chopra W. Van der Vaart, on display at 1X1 Art Gallery, Dubai from 11th November to 31st December 2022.
The exhibition presented multimedia works made using photography, drawing, sculpture, textile and wood to reflect upon stories and histories of migration, time, our relationship with nature and the environment.
Remen’s works are a unique assemblage of intimate moments, poetry and personal objects that were passed on matrilineally, from one generation to the other. She explored the cartography of memory and the non-linearity of both narratives and time. Through her work, the artist journeyed to sites of memories, evoking personal spaces, her relationship with the landscape, returning, always, to the maternal source.
The maternal source of the grandmother—from whose archive she employs the city, the story, the memory and the object. The maternal source also of Earth—exploring the idea of Earth as feminine, a sacred space of belonging. This concept manifests itself from a micro level of personal spaces that evoke the memories of home to a macro level of the earth which we call home. Home serves as the leitmotif in one's history, identity and sense of belonging. The structure that houses us becomes a reflection of our personal, ideological and cultural pasts. It forms our notions of comfort and stability – we build our homes and our homes build us.
The artist was inspired by architecture and constructed complex monochromatic, performance-based montages that drew significantly from the aesthetics of theatre.
She meticulously layered photographs and drawings with glass or mulmul, which captured a fleeting moment in time. The figures were staged, sometimes in transition, evoking a sense of mystery as well as nostalgia. The use of light, symmetry, geometry and patterns; play a key role in Remen’s artistic practice.
The feminine form sees a strong presence in her world of nostalgia, represented as figures or abstracted as undulating landscapes capturing ideas of regeneration, nurture and balance.