Nilima Sikhrakar

Painting

Duality is one of the series of paintings in which I have intended to express the paradox of co-existence of polar opposites. Life is not separate from death; they are happening together and through each other. I have been experimenting with the figurative forms along with the symbols as metaphoric expressions pertaining to my life and surroundings.

In the Duality series, an umbrella is one of the main symbols I have been using to depict protection. The bulb emitting light, representing hope, is giving birth to despair, the darkness. Hair is the energy entanglement of thoughts: bad and good. Motifs are encrypted in my mind reminding me of who I am and where I come from.

In “Duality II,” there is a curtain, symbolizing boundary. But, haven’t all the boundaries led to the development of the power to expand our limits? Two legs are the representation of our desire to walk away from all the situations and conditions that are imposed on us, and our fears that hold us back from taking steps into unknown. Circles on the curtain are a representation of the vicious circle character the mind can take sometimes. The feet represent the desire to walk out of our own limitations.

Nilima Sikhrakar is an international visual artist. She was born and raised in Kathmandu, Nepal. She completed her BFA at the College of Fine Arts (C.K.P) in Bangalore, India; and MVA at Jain University in Bangalore, India. She has been actively participating in worldwide solo and group exhibitions since 2012 in New Dehli, Bangalore, Jaipur, and other Indian cities, as well as in Kathmandu, London, and New York. In 2016 she was selected as the speaker to represent Visual Artist from Nepal for the Vajrayana Buddhism Conference held in Bhutan for her research on mudras. Her work on “The Five Dhyani Mudras” was published by The Center for Bhutan Studies in A Mandala of 21st Century Perspectives. She currently lives in Clinton Township, Michigan.