Identity
found clothing rack cardboard box with metal rod, deadstock and scrap fabrics found at fabscrap (nyc), fabrics I designed and printed on a fabric prototype plotter, other fabrics from garment district (nyc), plastic hangers, sobo fabric glue, plaster cloth, airbrush paint, glitter
when I was younger, I created a box / it had a door with a window, a computer keyboard to type my feelings into the void and sketchbooks to draw in / it became my safe space, a place I could escape to and find refuge in / as I am older now, I decided to create a similar box to reflect my identity / it is hard to put who I am into words, into sentences, into paragraphs, into pages, into books as there just wouldn’t be enough space / not in a narcissistic way though, but because I am ever-changing and continuously adding to who I am / this box represents an identity of some kind, some part of me, but not the whole, not the full / this box was a different a few weeks ago / but I ripped it apart and started anew because I am a different person today.
the door of the box represents my journey in life / how it ebbs and flows and is never-ending / how not one part of it looks the same.
the labyrinth portrays the good, the bad, the balance, and so does this box, and that is what these three colors symbolize - yellow is the good, purple is the not so good and green is the balance / this box embodies intrinsic parts of who I am.
growing up in india for the most part, I used to raid my mom’s and grandmothers’ closets / they were filled with indian clothes of all kinds, from every saree I could possibly imagine to chudhidars and dupattas / I would drape and pleat and twist and ruffle them to make creations of my own / every time I went into their closets I would make something completely new / my box is the epitome of my family’s closet and this childhood adventure I would always have / each fabric in the box represents something to me and my identity / where either the colors match the theme, or are the fabrics I designed - along with one fabric consisting of words sent to me by my chosen family and a montage of beaches - my favorite place to be at / I wanted to revisit this and try it for myself where I take my fabrics of my choice and try draping it into something new / outcomes were not what I wanted but it was fun to to try out my old tradition and have fun with it
maybe one day I will tear apart this box again and it won’t be the same
