Bird's Nest (From My Window)

Bird’s Nest (From My Window) was created in the Context and Space studio in Semester 1, Cycle 1 under the guidance of Seema Sathyu. The concept was a metaphor for change over time—a bird’s nest (that I could see from my window) being made, lived in, and abandoned, to be destroyed by the elements.

It was the first assignment we had, and the class was grounded in initial explorations, a soft landing pad for those of us who hadn’t studied art before. This class introduced me to soft sculpture, something I chose to take on in my future classes because of how much I enjoyed the process of making one. The texture of the cloth, the vibrancy in embroidery, the malleability of a 3D object; these were all deeply pleasurable to me, and I realised that my other classes in the cycle (which were reading intensive) were easier to handle when I was able to take time and space to create with my hands, following my own intuition and aesthetic sense. This was the start of my interest in embodied creation, teaching me about the pedagogical potential of making for the sake of making.