Little Packages of Incomprehensible Things, solo show
vinyl on vinyl
In Little Packages of Incomprehensible Things, Isha Naguiat continues her explorations in mixed media, this time evoking ruminations on the self and the anxieties that color its interactions with others. To behold her work is always to take into account the interplay of the transferred image, the embroidered texts, and the forms of the fabrics. Due to the nature of these materials, her pieces often employ layering, suffused as they are with gentle translucencies and occlusions. It is a sensibility that serves well to investigate the personal and relational. Conjuring internal aspects glimpsed yet unrevealed-- either by choice or circumstance-- and the subsequent difficulties in communion that such situations bring about.
For this exhibition, Naguiat embroiders her thoughts and words across her pictures. In one set of works, only the backside of the embroidered texts are viewable-- a double act of occlusion of both self-image and speech as if both were immune to transmission. On another set, phrases muttered during various attempts at communicating are imposed on top of personal images. Legibility, however, does not imply communication. More often, attempts at communicating can be haphazard, awry, infuriating, and prone to mishap, precisely because the self remains incomprehensible, and thus, isolated and distant. There is often an acute sense of longing in being heard but not understood, seen but not recognized. The self longs to reach outward even if wayward doubts consign us instead to cautiousness. How often are we caught between a palpable desire for intimacy and our own stifling inhibitions? And how infuriating are these nagging thoughts that seemingly fetter our expressions.
In this, the gesture of embroidering, a repetitive act that paves the way for a confrontations with one’s thoughts, seems apt. It mirrors thought in as much as the labored stitch is akin to a relentless questioning. As Naguiat remarked, “Embroidery is asking yourself the same question again and again, and needing to be sure again and again.” - JC ROSETTE
