The Unity of Opposites: A body of work that explores human needs

SUMMARY

In my new body of work, ‘The Unity of Opposites’, I explore the title concept through New Mixed Media and poetry. What is ‘The Unity of Opposites’ though? Coincidentia oppositorum, or the coincidence of opposites, speaks of things that we perceive to be opposites but are actually non-dual, i.e. part of the same thing and form a unity. Their existence and identity depend on each other and presuppose each other to form an endless loop. To me, this concept is both universal and deeply personal. I’ve explored it through my personal experience and life growing up as a Parsi in Bombay, and it is this first person approach that allows the work to explore our human need to order and simplify the complexity of the world around us. Exploring the narrowness of human perception versus reality using these non-dual opposites, I hope to lead us to a better understanding of ourselves and our perceived worlds. ‘The Unity of Opposites’ runs from July 29 to August 18, 2018, 11:00 am–7:00 pm, Tuesday to Sunday at Rukshaan Art Gallery (2nd floor, Dresswalla House, Ali building 72, Shahid Bhagat Singh Road, Fort, Mumbai 400 023) Tanya Mehta is a nationally and internationally exhibiting New Media Artist who explores the gaps between our different constructions of knowledge – philosophy, art, science, the metaphysical – and finds, in those gaps, bridges.

By Tanya Mehta Jul 30, 2018 9:08:09 AM IST (Updated)

Unifying the show and its central concept, ‘I am the Unity’ explores the romanticism of childhood through an adult’s eyes. A self-portrait, I personalise this concept through old family photographs juxtaposed against images taken of the same places in 2018. The main motif that symbolises nostalgia and binds me to my world is the embroidery taken from my great grandmother’s sari. The piece is the tug of war between childish wonder and the tedium of reality while the mind tries to seek a yin-yangesque balance between both.

With the message of how earth mirrors sky, man seeks a dangerous foothold to touch the heavens.

Now dealing with more universal opposites, ‘Reclaimed’ explores a moment in man’s ever-determined conquest to order the world around him. Here, man has attempted to destroy nature to use her for his creation, but nature has reclaimed what will always be her right. For everything must be destroyed in order to create. They are entwined.

The Penrose triangle is an object that cannot exist in our three-dimensional space. When looked at as a whole, the object is impossible, but if we consider each segment, it connects in some sort of order in our minds.

Inspired by Robert Frost’s ‘The Road Not Taken’, the forest, too wild and unfathomable, will be ordered by each person individually to create a more manageable and yet flattened work. This is the reflection we choose to study, instead of understanding the complexities around us.