Shilpa Nikam
Visual Artist
Artist Statement
As an artist who has been practicing in the field for about 25 years, I am often faced with these questions if Art is supposed to mean more than just a mode of expression of an inner self or a means of earning a livelihood ? Art has become an intrinsic part of human living and hence, I ask myself the question of these artistic abilities which generate in me, and express through me, in spite of the fact that I don’t seem to have any lineage of artists / artisans in my family. My ancestors were known occupationally to be ‘traders’ in Pre-Independent India. My family traded in vital commodities like pulses, oil seeds, cotton seeds, chillies, lentils, jaggery, vegetable oils, vegetable ghee and wheat grains and natural oils like kerosene.Upon asking my parents about our origins, and our businesses which my ancestors ran in Jaffrabad, a treasure trove of stories were revealed to me.
My decision to study at the prestigious Sir JJ School of Art happened after completing a Textile designing course in Nirmala Niketan. My art has over the years changed and evolved into a personal narrative which is rendered in various types of abstractions. I decided to take the migratory journey that my parents and family members have taken up over 50 years ago as my subject of art, and my mind was constantly reminded of numerous immigrants to the city of Mumbai even to this day.
There are thousands of migrants in our country and around the world. My works deal with numerous levels of engagements, migration, economics, social, political and cultural changes in a place over time become relevant and I have taken the first step to empathizing with the migrant population of the world in my own language of art.
The place of my birth has inspired me to create works in series, It has taken months for me to continuously work upon the kinds of landscapes I encountered in Jafrabad. The drying fish on the lines at the sea shore is a regular scene and this has inspired my works in numerous ways.
I believe that art and culture ought to be rich and vibrant, and religious pursuits and cultural differences does not break a population into bits, in fact encourages a symbiotic relationship for survival with dignity. My works are about an underlying unity of things, places and people rendered in my own lexicon of abstraction.
Shilpa Nikam
2022