Self Remembering Itself
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Size: 3ft x 3ft
Creation Date: 2025
Collection: Organic Movement
Self Remembering Itself explores organic movement as an act of return. The painting is structured around a circular, spiraling motion—an inward sweep of blue, crimson, and white that suggests both turbulence and coherence. The surface feels in motion, yet anchored, as if the energy of the painting is folding back upon itself rather than dispersing outward.
This work is less about expression than recollection. The gestures curve, overlap, and re-enter their own paths, creating a sense of continuity rather than progression. Movement here is not linear or goal-oriented; it is recursive. The painting behaves like memory itself—layered, nonlinear, and embodied. Each brushstroke holds the trace of a previous moment while reshaping what follows.
The tension between cool blues and warm reds establishes a dynamic internal dialogue. These colors do not oppose each other; they interpenetrate, forming a dense field of interaction. The central opening—neither void nor focal point—acts as a pause where motion briefly suspends, allowing awareness to gather. It is in this pause that the painting’s title becomes felt rather than read.
At a 3 × 3 ft scale, Self Remembering Itself invites an intimate encounter. The viewer’s eye is drawn into the circular motion, following the sweep of the brush as if tracing a thought returning to its origin. The painting does not present an image of the self; it enacts a process of self-recognition through movement.
Influences include the late works of Willem de Kooning, particularly his ability to sustain tension between gesture and structure, and Gerhard Richter’s exploration of how surface manipulation can function as a form of thinking. Mark Rothko’s understanding of color as a field of presence rather than representation also resonates here, especially in the way color operates emotionally rather than symbolically. From Indian modernism, J. Swaminathan’s conception of abstraction as an inner orientation rather than an external depiction continues to inform the work.
Self Remembering Itself belongs to an ongoing inquiry into abstraction as a site of consciousness. The painting does not aim to be decoded. Instead, it offers a space where perception, memory, and sensation converge—where the self briefly encounters itself in motion.
