Since I left India in 1988 I have lived and worked in many different countries and those varied experiences are constantly reflected in my work. Nostalgia for my upbringing in India – what I did and what I did not do – is also a continuing underlying theme in my paintings. Would I have been a different painter if I had lived all my life in one place? Would the need to hold on to some core elements of an evolving identity in the face of constant displacement have influenced my paintings as much as it has done? These themes – of identity, duality and human nature – are what I am interested in.
Painting to me is a bit of a metaphor for life itself. You start with an idea of where you want to go, using colours and palettes that are familiar but then as you work it links to your state of mind, and the moment in time and to events that influence you, and you end up somewhere you had not imagined when you started.
Angeli Sowani