Tarika Sabherwal immigrated to Aotearoa from India with her family at the age of 11. Although secular, her family engaged in ritualism and shared stories from the Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyaṇa, epics that ground the Hindu faith. The stories—with their rich descriptions, powerful characters, and mystical journeys—inspire the images that appear in Sabherwal’s works.
Sabherwal often explores the sculptural dimension of painting, playing with shaped supports or slicing into them. In this body of work, she deconstructs the cotton duck canvas, creating diaphanous pieces that appear woven rather than painted. The imagery becomes slippery, distorted, even ghostly, as if it is just coming into being or hovering on the point of dissolution. In Another Life is presented by Season in partnership with Jasmin Sparrow.