Artist Statement My practice is rooted in memory, material, and the quiet power of storytelling. Trained first as an engineer and later shaped by years of working with Indian folk and classical art traditions, I create sculptures that hold both precision and intuition—forms that may be structured in their making yet remain deeply human in their emotional resonance.

Working primarily with paper mâché, I draw from the stories that shaped my childhood—tales of mythic birds, spirited beings, and the gentle magic of everyday life. These works breathe through the visual language of the Gond Indigenous community of central India, whose rhythmic patterns, symbolic forms, and narrative sensibilities have shaped my imagination for as long as I can remember. Through this lens, personal memory becomes contemporary sculptural form.

Paper mâché allows me to build slowly and intuitively, layer by layer, until each piece begins to hold its own presence. The process mirrors the way memories evolve—retold, reshaped, and softened over time. In Smriti Sutra, my current exhibition, these sculptures become vessels for recollection: stories held in form, pattern, and gesture, each infused with warmth, humor, and the emotional clarity of lived experience.

Alongside this body of work, I include a small selection of earlier bas-relief sculptures of Australian birds. Blending local fauna with Indian motifs, they reflect my interest in how cultural languages travel and adapt—how an Australian bird can still carry the quiet echo of an Indian line.

Together, these works trace a journey through memory, migration, and material. They invite viewers to look closely, to recognize fragments of their own stories, and to feel the quiet continuity between past and present, heritage and home.

Instagram: @sandhyamulchandaniart