Tarika Sabherwal

INFO

Name	Tarika Sabherwal (she/her)
Born	1995
Country of Birth	India
Place of Residence	Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland
Ethnicities	Indian
Artform	Visual arts
Decades Active	2020s

ABOUT

Tarika Sabherwal is a visual artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau who explores the sculptural nature of painting, while simultaneously rooting her subject matter in the depths of Hindu folklore, exploring how these ancient stories can be reflected in our current lives.

Sabherwal and her family migrated from Kolkata, India to Tāmaki Makaurau when she was 11 years old, and she has described the unfamiliarity she felt when returning to India after spending several years in Aotearoa. Though she grew up in a secular home, her family practised ritualism and she was told many stories from texts that ground the Hindu faith, such as the Ramayana and Mahabharata. These stories with their ornate descriptions, powerful characters, and mystical journeys, inspire the imagery that Sabherwal incorporates into her practice. She has said that she creates “new versions of these tales to allow for possibilities. New meanings. New learnings. To be carried forward that actually resonate with me.”

Sabherwal is experimental with painting and tends to explore it as a sculptural form. In her exhibition Day Dreamers at central Tāmaki Makaurau tattoo studio Bruce in July 2023, Sabherwal included moulded metal works of multiple faces; canvases with square gaps in their centres, forming frames for smaller works; charcoal pieces on paper; and fabric and fringe layered on top of framed acrylic and ink paintings on canvas. This exhibition took inspiration from the story, derived from the Ramayana, of the trial by fire that Rama forced upon his wife Sita to prove her chastity. Sita asks the fire God to duplicate her, so that she may survive.

In some of her works, Sabherwal uses an airbrush tool to paint onto raw canvas, creating a dyed effect. She often chooses a minimal colour palette to create high-contrast monochromatic compositions that she describes as mimicking the effect of an image burned into one’s retina. In the work Kis Ki Rani? (Queen of Where?), presented in the exhibition Kiss Taraf, Sabherwal uses this technique to depict a woman riding a horse — reflecting a more recent moment in Indian history, when warrior Jhansi ki Rani led a mutiny against the British rule of India in 1857. She channels this story, like the many others she references, as a mode of remembering fundamental tales of cultural significance.

At Window Gallery in November 2023, Sabherwal presented Re-imagined Devotion, an exhibition that explored the tradition of pandal hopping as part of the festival of Durga Puja. Open-sided marquees are erected throughout cities to venerate Hindu deities, which in recent years have been modernised to become similar to temporary art installations. Sabherwal channeled this practice by creating a pandal of her own within the Window gallery space.

By referencing these traditions and stories, Sabherwal investigates their purpose and relevance to our current times. Though they may exist to teach moral or life lessons, there are several ways to interpret these tales. Sabherwal creates new visual media through a contemporary lens to explore these alternative interpretations of such stories.

At university, Sabherwal painted family photos in order to build a stronger connection to India, and to her family. She completed a Bachelor of Fine Art at Chelsea College of Arts, University of the Arts London, in 2018.