Knowing the World by Hansa Sethi
Explore Mondoir Studio
Medium: Mix Media on Canvas, strechted on wooden frame
Dimensions: 16 x 20 in
Year: 2026
Price: $2200.00 USD
Status: available
"Knowing the World" captures a profound journey from innocence to awareness. I was inspired by the idea of a golden, imaginative mind slowly becoming mechanical through life's experiences. In this piece, a childlike figure emerges, gazing into an empty mechanized hand. This hand, though seemingly weightless, bears the invisible burden of memory and conditioning, subtly reshaping the body and spirit. I constructed this work using found materials like adhesive elements, thermocol spheres, and discarded decorative plastics, layered with acrylic. These materials evoke a playful, curious engagement with the world, reminiscent of early childhood. Over time, they transform, mirroring how experiences shift our perceptions. What begins as innocent decoration evolves into complex symbolism, much like our own transformations through knowing the world. The textured surface of the painting embodies both memory and change, a place where wonder hardens into structure, softness into mechanism, and innocence into a deeper awareness. My hope is that viewers feel the weight of this transformation and reflect on their own journey of becoming.
Why collect this work?
A dense field of gold, rust and black nearly absorbs the figure it describes, making recognition itself the subject: knowing arrives through uncertain, effortful looking.
- Sethi frames her practice as an inquiry into psychology and existence. Here, she describes a childlike figure becoming conditioned by experience, an intention supported, though not conclusively illustrated, by the image’s tension between body and encrusted field.
- In the photograph, a profile-like contour and diagonal, hand-like form emerge from clustered marks, then recede again. This unstable legibility makes the figure appear formed by the same accumulated matter that threatens to obscure it.
- The catalogue documents acrylic with adhesive elements, thermocol spheres and discarded decorative plastics on canvas. Their varied shapes make possible the granular relief and repeated bead-like structures visible in the photograph, while metallic colour binds disparate parts into a compressed surface.
- Encountering this work alongside paintings with clearly separated figures and grounds would sharpen its particular proposition: identity is not placed against experience but assembled from its residues. Its modest 16-by-20-inch format concentrates that conflict rather than resolving it through scale.
About the Artist
Hansa Sethi
Hansa Sethi is an artist on Mondoir Studio. Artistic discipline: Mixed Media. Based in Jabalpur, IN.
Nationality: Indian
Hansa Sethi is a psychological and philosophical artist whose work explores thought, emotion, identity, and existence.
