Ah (A Sigh)

Dube’s Ah (A Sigh) also features her characteristic use of velvet wrapped around objects. In this work, she wraps fibreglass objects that look like severed plant roots or the blood vessels of some monstrous creature, with black velvet. They explode from the canvas like menacing surreal hands about to grab you. Behind this sculptural work is a photograph of people looking out in strife, seemingly in protest, making their existential anxiety evident. The velvet objects extend out of the work in a parallel to the outstretched arms of the people in the photographic print. The juxtaposition of the image of a protesting marginalized people with the threatening velvet structures creates a poetic frisson.

The works was featured as part of the exhibition 'Connecting Threads: Textiles in Contemporary Practice'. The exhibition was curated by Tasneem Zakaria Mehta and Puja Vaish and attempts to trace textile practices, traditions and histories in Contemporary Indian Art.