Aaliyah Gupta

UNFINISHED BUSINESS curated by @june_sekiguchi was such a fun show to be a part of. Artists were given an unfinished work by another artist to use as a starting point. We were free to do what we wanted - cut, burn, paint over - and the reimagined works were quite wonderful.

The show is up at the beautiful Postmark center in Auburn until mid January. More about my piece below.

"In Rajasthan, old palaces and houses had jaali windows – windows with a carved screen that let in light and air while minimizing sun and rain. They also acted as a privacy screen so that women could look outside without being seen. When I saw Kelly Lyle’s unfinished watercolor of a woman sitting pensively on a bench, I felt that I was interrupting her solitude; that my gaze was intrusive.  And that sparked the idea of making a jaali window to give her some privacy from the gaze of the outside world.

The burned paper layer mimics the intricate patterns carved in the jaalis, which are typically geometric, calligraphic or natural patterns traditionally made of stone. My paper jaali has trees embedded into the pattern in response to the trees in Kelly’s landscape. While the landscape in Kelly’s work is essentially Northwest, the trees in the image are Indian. I was able to find an old leaded window at Second Use that was weathered and had a sense of history.  My paper jaali sits on top of the glass with Kelly’s work behind the glass."

#burnedpaper #unfinished business