Self-made art and artists

Yashwant Singh creates art using his own body. It's performative and gets us to think about ideas, processes and identity

- AARON MYLES PEREIRA

A lot of my work is digital, mostly on a screen. So, I'm intrigued by artists who explore alternative mediums in innovative ways. Yashwant Singh, a young artist - he was born in 1994 - does this well.

In his ongoing series, Yashwant uses his own body to create his art works. He adopts different postures and imprints himself on to the paper by using soot or lampblack. He covers himself in paint and throws himself on a canvas. His body, therefore, becomes both the subject of the work, as well as the tool to create it.

As Yashwant explains, "I am trying to search 'Who is this body in my work? What are the politics of this figure?' By extension, it becomes an inquiry into the self and the times this self cohabits with others..." He adds that anxieties, desires and bodily pleasures are common themes in his work.