Anousha Payne b. 1991, lives and works in London. Her work explores the boundaries between personal experience, fiction and myth. Informed by Indian folkloric stories, it plays on ideas of the performative powers of objects and chance; the combination of moral dilemmas, magic, and animism alongside characters with transformative qualities.
Often deploying reptile skin, her ceramics are intended as hybrid objects, a reminder of the fluidity and shared qualities between humans, animals, the natural world and inanimate objects. Ceramic sculptures are adorned with jewellery and textiles, acting as cultural signifiers whilst questioning material hierarchies and values.
Another element to her work is storytelling through simple gestures and expressions, reflecting on human interaction and communication. The deployment of bharathantyam hand gestures are used as a way of connecting with cultural heritage, as well as being used for their known symbolic Meaning.
Anousha Payne graduated from Camberwell College of arts with a BA in 2014. Recent exhibitions include Tangled toes, twisted ears at Public Gallery, Midsummer nights dream, Alkinois, Athens and It is better to be cats than be loved at Tabula Rasa, London, As she laughs at Cooke Latham and Hawala at Paradise Row. Upcoming shows include a solo exhibition at Stellarhighway in New York, a group show with Arusha Gallery in New York, and a solo show with Home in London.
