Astha Faith Indomitable | Theirs & Mine 2020 (Diptych)
ASTHA means faith in my native languages of Hindi and Bengali. As a body of work the diptych series seeks to explore an individual’s faith from a two-point perspective; the faith of others in oneself and one’s own faith in oneself. Both crucial and life sustaining, stand alongside us as we traverse the vagaries of life.
Water sustains our body but faith sustains our spirit through the journey of life. It is the treasure of the heart’s storehouse. With this in mind water vessels have been used as an analogy for this enduring theme.
AVAILABLE as diptych
THEIRS (77cm X 50cm X30cm)
(Glazed earthenware, resin & iron oxide)
The faith of those around oneself has been depicted as a larger than life travel flask. Not unlike a flask one would carry whilst traversing inhospitable terrains, much like the harsh realities of the world we live in today. Water is a giver of life. It provides vital life support even in the harshest of environments. The form of the travel flask alludes to the journey of life. As the journey unfolds the people and their faith in us morph, often breaking and being remade by deed, word and thought. The cracks refer to this unerring process.
MINE (85cm X 40cm X 50cm)
(Glazed earthenware, wood & iron oxide)
One’s own faith in oneself has been depicted as a domestic water tank, the kind one would find in a humble home. The form alludes to the incalculable reserves of strength and hope we hold within each of ourselves. This tank of faith has no bottom. A water storage tank such as this is found in the domestic setting of a home. This is a metaphor for the reserves of our faith residing in the house of our heart.