The Second Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane, Australia, 1996 : Report

nurturing. They are vulnerable to the vicissitudes of politics , economics and radioactive fall-outs. (extract from artist's statement) Mrinalini Mukherjee creates monumental, imposing and compelling works of hemp coloured by natural vegetable dyes. The artist says of her work: The nature of my material, hemp, is such that it conjures many images: the body, clothing , adornment, flora and fauna. My material creates an obtrusive physicality yet the logic of nature of that physicality is make-believe. As a charade is enacted , I find myself fulfilling a childhood dream for a wonderland of transposed codes while simultaneously commanding my own rules of the game. I enjoy working with a sense of inside and outside, masculine and feminine, figure and flower, folding in on one another, allowing my sculptures to grow of their own accord. While there is a strong tradition of knotting in India, Mukherjee's work is not a celebration of folk art forms and the artist does not distinguish between art and craft. The presence of her work is powerful, encompassing more space than it physically occupies. The simplified Tirthankara figure associated with Jainism (an I ndian religion and philosophy that advocates the practice of ahimsa or non-violence , often through severe ascetic practices) is a recurring image in the sculpture and drawings of Rimzon as are the swollen form of the pot, the sword and the house. The artist assimilates multivocal archetypal symbols into his personal language in the process of unlocking meaning . His work exists withi n a continuum of certain I ndian belief structures while reflecting the contradictions in the fabric of contemporary l ife i n I ndia; regional differences and international influences add to the fragmentation. House of heavens is a sculpture of fibreglass, resin, aluminium and marble dust and is accompanied by a suite of drawings which explore the artist's recurrent imagery and concerns. The painted and suspended canvases of Nilima Sheikh reflect the ancient cultural traditions of India. They are inspired by, and draw on, allegories and legends 11