Architect Shikha Setia’s debut art exhibition is devoted to Nature and Structures

Rajkumari Sharma Tankha

Hailing from Abohar, a small town in Punjab, where her father is a progressive horticulturist known for setting up one of the first English rose nurseries in the state, Shikha Setia grew up delving into the slow and easy pace of all that closeness to farm and the earth offers. Perhaps that is what brought her closer to Nature and art. She is presenting her art works on Nature and buildings, as also their inter-dependence in her debit show A Journey Through The Shades that begins tomorrow at Museo Camera, Gurugram.

A professionally trained architect, Setia is a mother of two and lives in Gurugram. In conversation with Life & More, she talks about her show and more:

Please tell us about your upcoming exhibition A Journey Through the Shades.
Colour. The word itself is so beautiful and when it varies and mixes one with another it produces a kind of a dance. The shades become the language and with the nuances of form and order speak up to the viewer.
This exhibition has two series – Pause In The Journey and In The Passing – painted over three years of time. Overall there are 18 works done in Oil and Acrylics.
Pause in the Journey talks about Nature. Nothing is singular in Nature. It all exists in sets. In the dominion of biophilia, our submission to it is also our victory.
In the passing is all about structures. Structures breathe! They do, and you feel that in whatever is connected with them. And when you look at the framework, wouldn’t you call it alive? Spaces shape our lives and us. Buildings need us as much as we need them. Their forms are full of possibilities and they can make us rethink tradition and ideas. Their connection with the elements around us is remarkable.

As an artist who is your favourite painter and why?
Leonardo da Vinci. I am in awe of him. The dependability that a name carries, his is one in my mind. Not just his paintings his entire body of works is just amazing. I love his engineering drawings. The Vitruvian man’s study is amazing. His work is completely elevating.

How and when did an architect turn into an artist?
I felt compelled to pick up brushes and paints almost three years back after a gap of more than a decade.
I guess every architect can be an artist. Everything is inter- related. Art and architecture and physics and painting and poetry. It’s only what surfaces on the top at a given time and more importantly under what circumstances.
So to conform to being one in a creative field is not so nice. Actually it is difficult. The creative mind will spread, it has to. Get influenced from other traits or amalgamate the two, or more.
One has to keep reinventing oneself. That is the nature’s law and the requirement of professionalism.

Between a writer, a poetess, an architect and an explorer, which one is your favourite, and who are you at your heart level.
If I have to choose, it shall be an explorer.
One cannot be wearing the same shoes the whole time. The shoes will need to be changed. I wouldn’t just give up my dancing shoes just because I have to be in the work shoes for some time. The dancing shoes would wait but they would be there. Only circumstances or me would choose when to adorn them again.
Creative process and the creative journey hence need not be linear. The bends and turns are rewarding and might ask for more creative expenditure from your mind and effort. So be it. A creative person doesn’t regret in the end and is only enriched.

How do you find time for pursuing so many interests of yours amid designing homes/ offices as an architect?
I am very blessed in terms of a very supportive family. So work has not felt like work ever. It has been a medium of being curious and on a high. My children are always welcome in my office/ studio/ sites. In fact they are big critics of mine, so is my mom and my brothers. My Dad has always been an admirer of my work and has always offered suggestions for improvement. And having a life partner with similar bent of mind, hobbies, and profession is a very big boon.