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Change is a constant in the works of artist Seema Kohli, whether it’s the theme of the cyclical nature of time, or the medium she uses to portray that.
Though she says that her work begins with lines — drawings — Kohli works in a variety of media, bringing a vibrant universe alive in works of art that include paintings and drawings, sculpture and performance pieces. She also writes poems that complement her pieces.
Kohli, who was born in Delhi, India, where she still lives, has shown internationally, including at the Venice and Florence biennales. Her works are also held in collections of institutions such as the British Museum in London, New York’s Rubin Museum and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Kohli will be on the Peninsula for her first solo U.S. exhibition, “Samsara & Metamorphosis: The Mystical World of Seema Kohli,” at the Pacific Art League, and will also offer several workshops and talks, coordinated by Sonia Patwardhan of Palo Alto-based Lasaya Art. We spoke to Kohli recently via Zoom about her work and her upcoming U.S. show.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
Embarcadero Media: The sacred feminine and time are major themes in your work. What drew you to explore these themes?
Seema Kohli: In India, I think it is very easy to understand this, because we are continuously talking about the changing face of our own life. We are seeing ourselves and discussing it constantly in families, at least in my own family, as I see it.
It may be different now, but as I was growing (up), it was a very important thing to constantly understand how we are changing as people, as humans, but at the same time not changing, you know?
That’s what I tried to interpret in my work. Because my work is not about what is happening outside. It is an internal journey. It is a very — I can’t say lonely, but I can say a space in which I internalize and try to interpret various moments of joy and other very different emotions also. They get a form, they get an image.
Most of these images are feminine. Earlier, I was not realizing (why) and I used to think, because I have a female body, that is the reason I’m able to express it like that.Â
But over the years, now that I’m 65 and I see how life is happening, and I see the dance of the celebration of feminine, the energy that we call Shakti (divine feminine energy in Hinduism).
Energy is something which is constantly expanding, even when it is deeply depleting, it is going somewhere and coming back as something else, as we see in the cycle of life, it is never going away.
Embarcadero Media: You have mentioned in previous interviews that “the image is living.” What do you mean by that?
Seema Kohli: The image is living because it is constantly interrogating me, constantly questioning me: “Why the hell am I going to be here sitting on your canvas? Why do you want me?”
So I need to make a constant conversation with the image, to give it a complete identity, a sense of respect that “You are here with me, not as something I want. It is something that you would like to be.”
My images are like friends who come and visit me on my canvas, and I have my conversation with them.
I’m not there to express or interpret those things in (people’s) homes, but they are able to make a direct connection with these images, these paintings. I don’t need to be there because (the images) are making their direct communication with the viewer, with the collector, with their homes, with their people, with different generations.
That’s why I say that paintings are heirlooms. They are not just about what you buy and take back like a good designer bag. They are heirlooms. They talk to your children, they talk to your walls. They talk to you, to whoever is visiting your house.
Embarcadero Media: You work in a wide variety of media. What draws you to use a particular medium for a work?
Seema Kohli: As I was working with my images, I realized that certain images wanted to be expressed, maybe as a sculpture. So my main source, or my main reservoir of my work, is through line — through drawing — and then maybe on the canvas and paper. But as I’m doing that and having a conversation with them, I realized that it’s much more than that.
Maybe they want to be a performance. So the conversation between me and my image becomes more of a conversation on a stage, which I call narrative performances. These are narrative performances because these images have communicated certain verses to me while I was having a talk with them.
It is like there are days when you want to dress up for a party, and you are usually in your loose jeans. So I think it’s my images who want to just dress up.Â
Embarcadero Media: Can you talk about some of the pieces that you’ll be showing here?
Seema Kohli: (Kohli’s gallerist, Sonia Patwardhan, holds up a painting during our Zoom call.)
I call it “Harud.” It’s a Kashmiri word. Harud means autumn, a time for change — a time for rejuvenation and how beautiful it is. I don’t think there is anyone who says autumn is not beautiful. It’s like fire all around you.
Even if you’re walking on the dry leaves, the sound they make, it’s so sensuous. That’s what death is all about. It is all about rejuvenation. It is the time to change. It is the time to let go and to receive.
We humans get so stuck to the fact that death is something negative — it should not be discussed. But we experience it every night. We experience it in the seasons. We experience it every moment, one breath going, one breath coming, one breath is dying, that’s why the other one is coming. So it is a constant. I think it’s a constant practice, a yogic practice, which you need to experience. It’s a yogic or a tantric practice that you experience letting go and receiving. That’s what this work is all about.
Embarcadero Media: What can people expect at the workshops you’ll be presenting during your visit?
Seema Kohli: It’s about tracking your memory and how memory plays in your life. How beautiful it is to see that memory does not have any timelines. You know, it does not have past, present or future. It is working in the present always. You may be thinking about your childhood, the smells, the flowers, maybe an image, maybe a bed sheet, maybe a photograph, maybe a book, maybe a name of a person who you really don’t know in this era, this time, but they come alive in memory. They come alive in memory, and we need to keep honing it.
I want to tell you, “Well, there is no past, there is no future, there is only present, and we live in present always.” It’s only we need to just shift that space of consciousness.
Embarcadero Media: This is your first solo show in the U.S. What do you hope the viewers take away from seeing your works themselves?
Seema Kohli: If they find themselves somewhere in the works, that would be wonderful. If they’re able to connect with some part of themselves in these works, and if they talk to them in some way, I think that would be just what is very rewarding for me.
“Samsara & Metamorphosis: The Mystical World of Seema Kohli” takes place Feb. 27-March 1 at the Pacific Art League, 668 Ramona St., Palo Alto. Kohli will be on hand for an opening reception Feb. 27, 5:30 p.m and lead workshops Feb. 24 at the Pacific Art League and Feb. 25 at the Triton Museum in Santa Clara. Kohli will also give a talk and poetry reading Feb. 24 at Stanford University and discuss her work Feb. 26 in a talk at the Palo Alto Art Center. For a full schedule of events, visit laasyaart.com.
