Felt and Flora

Sagarika Sundaram's Enveloping Organisms

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Occasionally, art defies definition and can be described in myriad ways, stretching a medium’s limits and carrying its history while transforming into something singular. Sagarika Sundaram innovates with fiber, molding it to heights and shapes previously unrealized, absorbing influence from all genres of art. You’ll want to put your hands on the work, but it might touch you first.

Kristin Farr: How do the forms and materials of your work relate to the body?

Sagarika Sundaram: The fabric is fleshy, often cut open like a membrane, a wound folded open, revealing a form hidden within a form. I’m interested in the psychological tension between inside and outside, surface and structure. Concentric rings, spirals, and a hybrid flower-womb maw recur as abstract gestures, recalling botany but also human biology, offering multivalent interpretations around birth, growth and nonlinear notions of time. At the heart of my work is an attention to the creative principle.

When did you start working in fiber? Tell us about your materials and dyeing process.

I studied batik, wax painting on cloth, in India between the ages of 11 and 18. The handwriting I uncovered during this period carries through in the abstract constructions I currently create. I acquire fiber primarily from the lower Himalayan region, Upstate

New York and Oaxaca. My network of wool suppliers is constantly shifting and expanding. Each variety of wool has its own texture, which offers a unique character to the work.