Nandita Mukand on Silence

Nandita Mukand is a Singapore-based artist whose practice encompasses sculpture, installation and painting and whose work has been exhibited and collected in Singapore and also internationally. Her practice is concerned with questioning the boundaries between the artificial and the natural and investigating how choosing the artificial over the natural continuously changes us as individuals, and by extension, transforms the collective psyche of our world. Drawing upon her interest in ontology, neuroplasticity, quantum physics and buddhist texts her work often explores observations of growth and decay in the wilderness in conjunction with the workings of the urban mind.

She fashions urban materials into organic forms reminiscent of natural growth and decay. In other installations she works with natural materials like dead plants, dried flowers and seeds. Whether synthetic or organic, building up of the sculptures and installations often involves repetitive processes that are meditative. Ideas of growth and decay, layers of accretion and erosion as markers of time, resilience in the face of adversity, the grace imbibed in adapting organically to circumstances, the beauty of chaos-these are some of the themes that form the backdrop of her artistic practice.

Nandita’s work was included in the OpenART Biennale 2017, Sweden and Imaginarium: To the Ends of the Earth, Singapore Art Museum. Other notable exhibitions include solo shows : Mind(less) Wilderness (2019), Forest Weft, City Warp (2017-2018),The Materiality of Time (2015) and group shows : From Lost Roots to Urban Meadows, The Private Museum, Singapore (2019), Exploring BigCI, Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, Australia (2015), Untapped,Chan Hampe Gallery, Singapore (2016), Fundacio L'Olivar Summer Exhibition,Spain (2016).

She has been awarded artist residencies by the Fundacio L’Olivar in Spain, the Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, Australia and the Bilpin International Ground for Creative Initiatives, Australia, all of which have enabled her to deepen her research into the natural world.

Having quit a successful corporate career with Proctor and Gamble to devote herself full-time to art making, Nandita graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (First Class) from Goldsmiths, College of London via LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore. She received the LASALLE Award for Excellence for outstanding student of the year. Nandita is also an alumna of the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta and has a degree in Electronics Engineering.