Artist Statement:

What Lingers Within? 

I use mixed media- paintings, illustrations, zines, textile, poetry- to explore the individual and collective body beyond the borders of our skin. Inspired by North Indian folk art and protective healing talismans, each piece reflects the tension of navigating a body that doesn’t seem to be yours. As someone whose experience of self is shaped by intergenerational trauma and chronic illness, I use artmaking as a diagnostic tool to bring the inside out. In this process, I explore our porosity as beings shaped by our society. What are the things that linger within us? Are they just ours? These pieces are not self portraits, but reflections of a diasporic chimera that is fragmented, fluid, and extends past ourselves.

Embedded in my work is the question of care and where we find it in a world that constantly demands our life and labor for survival. From being a patient myself to working in community health spaces as a clinical advocate, the tools we have to make our bodies legible through our medical system often fall short as a result of deep-rooted colonial inequity. Our bodies are pathologized when not productive and marked as monstrous when mad. Both as caregivers and care receivers, these systems can further isolate us from our bodies and each other. In these works, I invoke traditional cultural forms and community conversations as an homage to the histories and practices that nourish us; by sharing our stories, I hope we can reclaim our agency and reimagine the body as a site for intentional resistance, healing, and connection.