Kashin Patel

figurative hand painted on fabric, artists own hand holding the painting

Kashin Patel (b. 1997) is an artist from Mumbai, India, living and working in London, England. She will graduate with an MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art, London (2022) and previously attained her BFA in painting at Sir J. J. School of Art, Mumbai (2020).

Kashin’s work highlights the self and its constant struggle to exist in society. Isolation, relationships and anxiety are all depicted through a narrative of experiences, with the frequent use of humour to express seriousness.

Kashin’s ongoing series on fabric brought from India focuses on ideas of home, yearning and uncertainty.

I want to tell my story, but I don’t want you to know it.

The meaning of my work is secondary. I hope that my work and visuals relate to the viewer as they wish, reflecting on their own interpretations. I hope this world of distorted figures allows the viewer to experience their own imagined reality.

My work is about the self.

Dismembered figures representing me or the people that surround me weave absurd narratives and morphed realities that reflect my thoughts and experiences. Often using subtle humour and satire, my work embodies ideas such as anxiety, identity, relationships, and social existence.

My recent work focuses on home, longing, culture, and how I navigate these concepts, painting on fabric brought from India. The recurring element of water in its various states has a dual purpose to highlight my personal adaptive nature and signify the multiple versions of ‘me’ that exist.

The process begins with drawing. The intimacy and immediacy I feel with this medium echoes in the linear aspect of my visuals. Drawings that begin as simple documentation of passing thoughts soon transform into snippets of my psychological and emotional states.