Two hollow pillars of cloth hang from the ceiling of Sakshi Gallery. A hidden motor whirls them around, and as they pick up speed they become reminiscent of something between a dervish and a tornado (well, maybe a personal one that could follow you around). Up ahead, a similar, if slightly wider structure whirls. The first is titled, ‘A Dervish of Tornadoes’, the latter ‘A Tornado of Dervishes’. Lekha Washington’s ‘A Pound of Flesh’ and ‘Suchlike’ on view at the gallery considers plurality, multiplicity and whimsy through collective nouns.
Washington finds collective nouns of interest: “They’re tongue-in-cheek, poignant but still relevant.” Like say, ingratitude of children, or the title of the show itself, a phrase borrowed from Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice , signalling not just Shylock’s greed but also a lack of humanity in the insistence of collecting his debt. Philosophical notes on collectives aside, there is a simpler reason Washington uses the grammatical intervention. “People tend to explore one or maybe two ideas at the most in solo shows. Working with collective nouns allows me to explore eight different ideas.”
The ideas are varied and include some instances of popular collections. ‘A Pound of Flesh’ is a transparent box with five chocolate-filled globes in a gradient of skin tones: like one of those fairness cream shade cards recreated in yummy goodness. Whether Washington means to or not, it leads to contemplating how re-thinking words can reshape our prejudices. On the other hand, there is the made up ‘Stampede of Windows’. A series of identical windows printed on paper are pasted to a wall like the facade of a large building. Viewers are invited to stamp the windows with a collection of stamps featuring everything from what could be window grille patterns to an elephant (a stampede is a collective usually prescribed to elephants), to a swan. Here, not only is a made-up collective being given legitimacy via viewer actions, but the work also becomes collaborative, collective action when the viewer decides on the stamp they will use, and where they choose to apply it.
Washington, who has worn many hats, including artist, product designer and actor, is a graduate from the National Institute of Design (NID) with a clear view towards art and design. Products made by Ajji, her design studio in Bandra are visually appealing while also being functional and comfortable.
Compared to Ajji’s lifestyle/interior products, her art is more whimsy replacing functionality. “It’s inherently coming from the same ridiculous source,” she says referring to herself, “but it also borrows from product design. All of this takes a lot of prototyping, it needs work.”
Washington’s first solo, ‘Exhibit A’, was held in Chennai about a decade ago when she was 18 years old. “It was a different time and space. I was exploring resin and fabrics as materials and surrealism in terms of content.” With ‘A Pound of Flesh’, she continues to explore varied material to bring her quirks to life. Take for instance, ‘A Quiver’. A heart made of paper planes made of steel. An actual paper version is propped up at Ajji, clearly after a laborious — but kind of fun? — process of making paper planes to pin onto a giant heart. The show also plays with material, using paper, cloth, metal, paint to create imaginary spaces where imaginary collectives meet. These could at once be a movie set, a hipster bedroom, a mellow-lit corner of a garden, a message board, and many other things.
Washington’s subsequent life as an NID student, an actor, a business owner, continues to inform her art, and we imagine vice-a-versa. “It feels like a lifetime has happened in between [Exhibit A and the current show]. But I remember being broke by the end of that production too, so I guess nothing has changed.”
‘The Collective Noun’, ‘A Pound of Flesh’ and ‘Suchlike’ will be on show at Sakshi Gallery, Colaba, till March 31
Phalguni Desai is a freelance writer and editor