The show Sacred Matrices is being hosted and presented by NGMA Bangalore and will be on till
Over the past four decades, Seema Kohli has worked with the feminine not only as a subject in her art, but as a source, a cosmology, and a language that connects memory, myth, and matter. The theme of this session — the power of the feminine in gender, sexuality, and material culture — resonates closely with her practice. These are not theoretical categories for me. They are lived experiences, layered histories, and inherited rituals. She has explored through my painting, sculpture, drawing, installation, and performance and writings.
It has anthropological relevance because she talks about the feminine not as somebody from an outward world she talks about her from a cultural reference, as a living entity. She refers to her as earth, the elements or as our own forgotten ancestors, who, they live in us as our DNA, the blood that flows in our body or that essence which is a part of our soul and philosophical.
The world which we inhabit, we dwell upon is not a dream but reality. A universe that was neither male nor female..
That which we believe.
That which we make tangible.
But that which is not.
Prakriti then, Nature: nurturing, hence feminine.
Creation. Procreation. A feminine percept.
A constant state of evolution, of birth and rebirth, of creation and destruction, and creation again…
“But my universe/painting is complete only when all energies balance. Yin and yang. Positive and negative. Man and woman. The Ardhanarishawar – not some hybrid creature, but man and woman united as symbols that complete the circle and the cycle of life,” says Kohli.
Read the full story that first appeared in Our Bangalore dated August 23-29 here:
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