Vessels of Change by Nandita Mukand

Vessels of Change is Nandita Mukand’s solo exhibition. Mukand is a Singapore-based artist whose practice explores the boundaries between the artificial and the natural. Having quit a successful corporate career with Proctor and Gamble to devote herself full-time to art making, she graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (First Class) from Goldsmiths, College of London via LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore. Mukand is also an alumna of the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta and has a degree in Electronics Engineering.

The theme of vessels as signifiers of human experience underpins this body of work. In recent times, we humans have experienced greater levels of drama but also of ennui & these changes leave me longing for the tactile, the physical, the sensuous. The material experience brings about an understanding of our lived experience that is deeper than words and logic. These cell-like forms reflect in many ways our current way of life- individual and discrete worlds interwoven with the whole, caving-in yet ever evolving; pulled, pushed, impacted, vulnerable, growing. The interwovenness symbolizes the connections in our lives- the connections we urban dwellers have with Nature, but also with people around the globe. The sculptures reference plants and growth I have studied during past artist residencies in wilderness areas of the earth. I remember the unique solace only they can provide, and longing to be with loved ones. And what of the potential for connection lost because of limiting the everyday interactions with members of our communities? We are more cut-off than ever from Nature and from each other, relying on technology to help fill the gaps. In this context the sculptures become drawings in space, a three dimensional mark-making symbolic of how each of us is trying to respond to the new reality we find ourselves in just as the organic structures in nature steadily adapt to the changing environment.