Shilpi Deb

“ACCUMULATE implies unintentional gathering of items, while to COLLECT implies to gather with a purpose”

From birth we collect/accumulate and layer on the things that make up our “self”, some innate and some picked consciously/unconsciously by way of conditioning. Our identity is like a fragile membrane surrounding us, that is continuously being altered by our backgrounds/circumstances and choices. This membrane is continuously morphing, 

Its state affects how we perceive and react to the world. When our membrane is tight/absolute we become reflexive, cynical, holes in our membrane shift allowing only more of the same through. When the membrane is flimsy and overinflated, we become guarded, reactionary, when the membrane is porous we allow a two way seep, we try to dissolve, widen and just BE, when the membrane is tender, we get kinder on both its sides, inwardly and outwardly. We are rarely objective and we almost always lazily look through a preset cloudy framework.

So I create figures with an opaque and strong core, surrounded by fuzzy membranes/outfits like cells with their nucleus and membrane. These figures are usually in symbolic acts of collection, spilling, interacting, undressing, letting go, cultivating… 

My process is layering, making parts heavy or blurry, having backgrounds eat into the figures and viceversa, porous stippling, having each layer subtly affect the next. It is almost impossible to isolate any single layer, they all fuse into one fuzzy form. Leaving me with pieces that have almost gone through the same processes of collection/leaks as I have.

Shilpi (born 12.03.1995) is a Kenyan- Indian artist living and working between Nairobi and London. She received a BFA from Sir JJ School of Art, Mumbai-India. She has exhibited in Kenya at the National Museum, Circle Art Gallery, Gravit Art Gallery, Alliance Francaise de Nairobi, Heinrich Böll Stiftung, Munyu Space, etc., in London at Orleans House Gallery, with Shape and Things Gallery, with Insistrum at Hypha studios Reading and in India and Japan. She is multi-disciplinary and has worked in art direction for film, creating sets. Her works have also been central to community project campaigns in Kenya like “Lesso Lessons” that went on to win awards at the Cannes Lions International Festival for Creativity (Gold Lion), D&AD (Yellow Pencil), the London International Awards, London WARC, Loeries, One Show and Clios. Her Practice stems from the need to untangle. Interested by the continuous and fragile idea of the self. How identity is collected/accumulated, what is innate orconsciously/unconsciously added through conditioning and how this affects responses and understanding.