Personal Space

This monumental paper scroll sprawls before our eyes like a curved wall. Densely layering paper, fabric, and paint, Chakravarty adorns this surface with images, patterns, and textures that evoke cartography and natural and urban landscapes. As we navigate this scroll, we find ourselves disoriented from moving along its winding curves or entranced as it encircles our bodies and transports us to a private dimension.

Personal Space also functions as a diary for Chakravarty, accumulating in layers as events unfold and memories arise. These emotionally fraught geographies reflect her idyllic upbringing in the lush countryside outside the city of Kolkata, as well as her anxiety seeing this natural environment destroyed by the rapid spread of urbanization. When this piece was created, Chakravarty split time between France with her husband and India with her parents. The work stands as the artist’s negotiation of distant times and places — a dynamic and evolving experience that many of us share with respect to our own environments.