Shell Asylum (Assemblage - 5) by Meghna Singh Patpatia

Who looks outside dreams and who looks inside awakes – Carl Jung

During the pandemic the human race across the world retreated into a confined shelter; Almost as if seeking asylum from the infectious outer environment. Much like mollusks retreating into their own shell for safety.

This lockdown led us to incubate our own thoughts and musings through a sense of uncertainty, memory & hope.

Our imagination taking flight and exploring possibilities or memory terrains, all the while being in a terrarium like bubble with ecosystems that feed off each other, thriving in confinement. The found objects and shells in these glass assemblages are reflective of our state of being in a restricted environment, within which we conjure up our own coping mechanisms to deal with the fear and uncertainty of the outer world.

The keys in each of the glass assemblages symbolize the act of looking within or ways to cope using whatever we had to manage with during the pandemic. Restrictive movement during this time that has almost cajoled us into that act of looking within, much like explorations within spirals and fragility of a Shell. Inhabiting our homes we have retreated into an asylum like state of mind within, where frail thoughts traverse, meander through inner spiraling terrains.

The ominous memory of sounds from being outdoors freely, contained in our minds, much like a shell that carries the sound and memory of the sea waves within it, as it is formed in all its symmetrical glory through the caresses of salt, water and movement, our environment. So reflective of our own human form, it expands and contracts within itself, creating chambers like rooms that breathe and adapt to changing climate and threat.

Through these explorations of assembling found materials placed in glass bubblelike terrariums & painted drawings, I attempt to reflect the experience of finding direction and examining our own awakening during this surreal time, apart- yet all breathing under the same sky.

-Meghna Singh Patpatia