ADITI’s
THE WHOLE IS GREATER THAN THE SUM OF ITS PARTS
Aditi Singh Shekhawat
The whole is greater than the sum of its parts, Aditi Singh, Shekhawat, 2024.
Concept Note:
The idea of family can be communicated in a myriad of ways. While the word "family" has a universally recognized meaning, its significance is highly subjective and personal. I wanted to observe how different individuals combine to form a larger identity—one more meaningful than each part. I aimed to deconstruct and reimagine this concept by focusing on the importance of its parts, i.e., the members.
For an individual raised in an urban metropolitan environment, the English term "family" has always felt the most familiar, despite it not being my mother tongue. This experience is not unique to me; many people around me, regardless of their diverse cultural backgrounds, frequently use the term "family" to describe their relationships. Consequently, I chose to capture the word "family" in my work, as it resonated with everyone. This observation highlights our contemporary linguistic relationship with the
term, suggesting that "family" transcends linguistic boundaries due to its widespread and spontaneous usage across various cultural contexts. To capture the nuances of all the people I consider family, I asked 11 people—some being my immediate family members and others with whom I formed great connections over the years—to send a clip of them saying the word "family." These 11 clips were then split and arranged into a collage.
The work began with the intention of examining how individuals articulate the term "family," focusing on the ease with which it is pronounced. While all participants repeated
the same word, subtle variations in their speech patterns emerged, symbolizing the unique roles and personalities they represent in my life. Despite these differences, a coherent sense of synergy became evident when the clips were assembled into a collage. This interplay between the clips was profoundly symbolic to me, as each individual was both similar and uniquely distinct, prompting me to question whether this balance contributes to their perception as a part of my family.
Visual analogies are also central to my work, often featuring unusual connections that may initially seem incongruous. In this work, I illustrate how all petals converge to form a flower, with each petal, while distinct, collectively contributing to the flower’s identity and aura, demonstrating how disparate elements can come together to create a cohesive whole. This completeness gives me the feeling of family's true essence, showing that the whole is indeed greater than the sum of its parts.
Bio: Aditi Singh Shekhawat (@ayoaditi) is a visual arts student specializing in Printmaking at Kala-Bhavana, Institute of Fine Arts and Crafts, Santiniketan. Her practice involves Lithography, Serigraphy, Etching, and digital media, blending traditional techniques with contemporary approaches. Her artistic journey began during a prolonged period of childhood illness when, much like Frida Kahlo, she found solace and expression through drawing while lying on her back, with her mother holding the sketchbook for me. This period ignited a profound passion for art that continues to fuel her practice.
Currently, her work delves into human behavior and the intricacies of the human mind, capturing both verbal and non-verbal expressions through vivid visual imagery. She explores the conscious and subconscious patterns that shape our perceptions and actions, experimenting with various scales and contexts to uncover new insights. Her approach is characterised by a childlike curiosity, deconstructing and reconstructing forms to expand her visual language through playful reinterpretation. The recurring patterns and symbols in her artworks are inspired by the replications seen in both Printmaking editions and social media algorithms, reflecting her fascination with the intersection of tradition and modernity.