Let Go by Hansa Sethi
Explore Mondoir Studio
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas, stretched on wooden frame
Dimensions: 24 x 36 in
Year: 2025
Status: available
Letting go is not weakness; it is an act of grieving and moving forward. Holding on to the past—even to those deeply loved—does not strengthen; it can begin to break. The loss of a loved presence or memory is among the most difficult experiences. Yet there are moments when releasing that weight becomes necessary. Clinging too tightly can leave a person trapped—vulnerable to forces that slowly consume, manipulate, or destroy. The octopus offers a striking reflection of this reality. When an octopus is born, it enters the world alone. The father dies shortly after mating, and the mother dies after the eggs hatch. There is no parental guidance, no inherited shelter—only the vast uncertainty of the ocean. Moving forward does not guarantee safety or success. Survival is never certain. Yet stepping into the world—even in solitude—creates the possibility of a life shaped by one’s own movement through it, rather than by the weight of what has already passed.
Why collect this work?
Cascading marks compress the painting’s crowded upper field into a dark central body, making release appear less like clean separation than passage through resistance.
- Sethi describes her practice as emotional abstraction concerned with vulnerability, endurance, and opposing states. Here, that framework clarifies the coexistence of saturated colour and engulfing black without fixing the image to a single emotion.
- In the photograph, green and ochre trails descend from above while white dots and outlines gather around an irregular black mass. The catalogue identifies an octopus as the work’s central metaphor, linking its solitary emergence to grief and moving forward.
- The documented acrylic on canvas permits abrupt opacity, layered colour, and fluid-looking vertical traces. These contrasts separate the pale contours from deep blue and black passages, though the photograph cannot establish actual surface texture.
- Encountering this work allows grief to be considered through biological metaphor rather than narrative illustration. Its unresolved boundary between organism and environment keeps survival, attachment, and release materially entangled.
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.
