Anousha Payne: Liste Art Fair Basel 2024

Works: 7

Working in sculpture and painting, Anousha Payne’s (*1991) preferred materials are ceramics, textiles, wood, rattan, metal, and watercolor. Her work explores the human pursuit of spirituality in object form, as a mode of cultural expression distinct from religious symbolism. Payne’s work processes the boundaries between personal experience, fiction, and myth; exploring how information is both lost and gained through the transition from drawing and painting to three-dimensional works, particularly ceramic sculpture. Often deploying reptile skin, her ceramics are intended as hybrid objects, a reminder of the fluidity and shared qualities between humans, animals, the natural world and inanimate objects. Ceramic sculptures are adorned with jewelry and textiles, acting as cultural signifiers while questioning material hierarchies and values. This process seeks to establish an aesthetic dialogue and personal visual language as a meditative interaction. Informed by Indian folk stories and personal fiction, she plays with ideas of the performative power of objects and chance, the combination of moral dilemmas and magic alongside characters with transformative qualities.