(2021) The making of the skin doll prompts a reflection on where to place this object of importance. I research miniature and portable shrines from around the world. Some are deep like boxes, many carry visual narratives. Many of them are also triptychs. In my research, I also come across a portable shrine reinvented for modern times, although the case used is almost already an artefact of the past in 2024.
Of all the portable shrines, the polyptych kawad shrine from Rajasthan is the most fascinating to me. It is a narrative device that lets the story-teller hide and reveal multiple panels as he or she narrates the religious tales.
(2023) In my art journal Our Lady of Psoriasis, I created a two-dimensional kawad-style shrine that tells a wordless story of the night I gave birth. So far, a wordless rendition has been the only way I have been able to express myself. The shrine includes representations of transgenerational elements.
(2023) As part of the 30works30days project led by ArtQuest London, I respond to one of the daily prompts (‘Make a work from your window’) with a shrine for the skin doll that combines inside and outside spaces. So far, this is the only shrine I have made for the doll.
I document local house temples found in private courtyards of Himachali villages. They are simple little houses with walls and a roof. I see connexions visually with the shadow box of the skin king.
My reflection on and interest in shrines is ongoing. The following is from my learning journal of 2023.
THE SKIN PROJECT 