Ashwini Bhat, ‘What Will It Take / For Us to Awake?’, 2024 

Ashwini Bhat, What Will It Take / For Us to Awake?, 2024

Bronze. Presented by Project 88  

About the Work

Ashwini Bhat’s practice establishes a trajectory toward a metaphysical understanding of nature and self. For several years, she has been working with the motif of the calla lily as a symbol of regeneration and resilience, of the (female) body and nature. Through this transformative biomorphic sculpture in the form of a calla lily bell, Bhat emphasizes links between human, vegetal and floral forms. In a temple, the act of bellringing is believed to induce mindfulness. 

In The Regent’s Park, the bell creates a secular and sacred space celebrating human interconnectedness with the more-than-human. Visitors are invited to look and reflect or to playfully interact by ringing the bell. Its sound might serve also as a wake-up call, focusing attention on our ecological crisis.

About the Artist

Ashwini Bhat (b. 1980, Puttur; lives and works in California, USA) works in sculpture, ceramics, installation and video. Coming from a background in literature and classical Indian dance, she has developed a unique visual language to explore the intersections between body and nature, the self and other.

Bhat is a 2023 United States Artists fellow. She was awarded the McKnight Foundation Residency Fellowship (2021) and the Howard Foundation Award (2014). Her work can be seen in collections at the Newport Art Museum; Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park; FuLe International Ceramic Art Museum, Fuping; the Watson Institute at Brown University, Rhode Island; New Bedford Historical Society; and the Daugavplis Mark Rothko Centre. Bhat was the guest curator for the 77th Scripps Annual, Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery, Claremont (2022). Her work was shown in ‘Objects USA’, New York (2021) and at American Museum of Ceramic Art, Pomona (2022). 

Frieze Sculpture is in The Regent’s Park, 18 September – 27 October 2024. No booking required, free to all. 

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Further Information 

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Digital Guide

Bloomberg Connects is the Official Digital Guide to Frieze Sculpture. The Bloomberg Connects app offers exclusive content including audio guides by Fatos Üstek, Curator of Frieze Sculpture, and the exhibiting artists. To access the Official Digital Guide, search for Bloomberg Connects on Apple Store and Google Play.

^{Main image: Ashwini Bhat, What will it take / for us to awake?, 2023–24. Bronze, 22 x 15 in. Courtesy: the artist and Project 88}