Experience Space 4 of 6 Print

Patel’s recent series asks us to look beyond such personal limitations, which are tethered to the Earth and its atmosphere, by looking towards the celestial bodies of outer space. Through spiraling strokes of paints on canvas, mimicking the serpentine motion of the Milky Way, the artist reflects on the philosophical incongruity of outer space as represented in popular Science Fiction, and conversely in our more personal and intimate relationship with the night sky. In the former our vast galaxies become another landscape upon which to enact geo-political wars for nation-state expansion, while in the latter, space is a vast spiritual void in which we can explore infinite versions of ourselves beyond the physical constraints of gravity. But instead of the artist giving herself up to a blind unconscious automatism, this homage to interplanetary vastness requires a great deal of mindfulness and intuitive listening. The collection is not simply about the canvases, but about the space that surrounds them; a space that demands your presence, asks you to slow down, listen to your breath, and quell your inner critic long enough to reflect on the infinite possibilities of space and time. It is about the way in which the artist herself shows up to invite you into her space-with warmth, optimism, and a desire to stimulate your own personal transformation.