Within you, without you

quot;Balloons are fragile so putting these aspirational things inside them is a way of putting across how ephemeral are the objects we most chase,quot; she says. And a painting with a grabbing fist locked inside a narrow-mouthed bottle which contains colourful items 8212; jewels perhaps 8212; restates the idea. The central thought to her work though, is growth, as the title of the show reflects. And it is portrayed best by her construction titled Joint Family8217;, which is a large house built of acrylic, corrugated paper, metal and stone. Among the meanings it is imbued with, the house is an ironic statement on the much-hyped evolution of the global village at a time when joint families are splitting into nuclear ones and individuals are careening off their own paths like stray electrons. But the home is also a green house for her, a place of germination where life carries life and individual legacies and histories are written, only to be overwritten. The birth andgrowth is symbolised by a pair of copulating cement serpents on the house floor, the Hindu motif of fertility. And the huge leaves painted on the blue-green exterior, reminiscent of Jack8217;s beanstalk, is the family tree climbing the walls of the family house. Each leaf is spiralling upwards, like ambitions and desires which push people out of the nest. But inside these leaves are painted objects of desires and figures. quot;Because usually, what we most want can be found inside ourselves,quot; says Reena.

The house also has a huge clockwork key on one side which denotes the sense of external control in our lives, quot;There is a feeling that things are programmed to work in a certain order. Even though that is the natural order, it is as if we are puppets of something,quot; she says. But opposite to the key, is the keyhole in the transparent belly of the fiberglass fish whose insides contain a smaller fish. A repetition of life carrying life and how most answers we seek outside are sealed inside us.

And juxtaposed tothe vague fear of external control is the realisation that life is after all a wild card which can turn out to be anything. One installation is a series of house of cards made from a deck of 26. The cards of each house, made from thick paper by Reena, have painted images of hands holding each other in various ways. quot;It is on how life is about building and collapsing and building again. And then of course, the cards signify that all of it just a gamble, after all,quot; she laughs.

The interconnectivity of themes in Reena8217;s works is very apparent but it does not make them repetitive, only more fluid and lucid like completing a circle of thought. She says there is distance between her and her works in the sense that they are not autobiographical. quot;People ask me whether I have studied Hindu mythology. I have not. But living in India, of course I have picked up some symbols and some thoughts. Though my work talks about materialism I am just like any other person. I am not very materialistic but neither am I anascetic,quot; she says.

Gallery Chemould, 1st floor, Jehangir Art Gallery, and at Pundole Art Gallery D N Road. Till September 9, 1997. Time: 10.30 am to 6.30 pm.