This, The Sublime and it’s Double : Tanya Goel
Indira Lakshmi Prasad

The ultra-modern architecture of Nature Morte Gallery, South Delhi, was perhaps the perfect complimentary environment for Tanya Goel’s most recent solo exhibition ‘This, The Sublime and it’s Double’. Her works have previously been notable for their unique and thorough exploration of abstraction. ‘This, The Sublime and It’s Double’ features a careful selection of the artist’s larger scale 7×9 foot works, right down to the compact 22×18 inch pieces. Observing the larger scale works such as ‘Carbon (frequencies on x-y axis)’ one is absorbed into an anechoic chamber of sorts, the grid of angular lines and vectors capsulate an array of formulaic inscriptions. The density and complexity of the works lie in their fine line between order and chaos of the urban age. In her work we are confronted with the imagery which we constantly encounter in contemporary city life. Mathematical formulas are created and distorted, leaving the impression of something algorithmic as we search for meaning in the coded intersections and symbols of the work.

The claustrophobia of the grid form is prevalent, conjuring the memory of the cities interior labyrinth, infrastructure extending ever upward as more and more flock to the metropolis. The motif of screens is also explored by Tanya Goel. As technology has advanced at an exponential rate over the past few decades, with huge portions of the globe bypassing the phone-line of previous times and arriving straight at state-ofthe- art smart phone technology, the screen is something which undoubtedly dominates our lives. We turn inward to the insular, filtered world of our mobile phones and laptop screens, somehow easier on the eye and mind than looking outward at the concrete jungle we share with millions of other somnambulant worker-ants.