The Bite Magazine - Summer 2019 - Issue 25

bite artist review Giving an emotional and personal insight into the ‘ONLY YOU’ exhibition, Indira revealed the inspiration behind the piece. “I first started working on this series in 2010 and I have continued to elaborate on it over the years. It is a very autobiographic series that I directed and photographed, working with a model to reenact sentiments I was feeling at the time. I had suffered from a devastating break up, a relationship that ended with lies, cheating and betray- al. I went from being a strong confident woman to being totally broken and it took me years to recover.” The most exciting moment in making a new piece of work for Indira is “com- ing up with the idea and then, of course, seeing the final artwork. As I make the work, the idea often evolves and it’s always exciting to see where it ends up.” She is particularly proud of her sculpture ‘Egg of Light’ which was exhib- ited at the Rockefeller Centre in New York as part of the Fabergé Big Egg Hunt and was auctioned to raise money for the Elephant Family in 2014. “It was a giant egg, covered in over 5000 pieces of glass and crystal, and literally glowed as if it was electric due to the refracted light against the glass.” Another piece of work that really resonates with the artist is her ‘Pandora’s Box’ neon sculpture which forms part of her Consent series. “It features the ultimate question ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ in neon mounted into a double mirrored cube.” Designed with an electrical transformer, the mirrored plexiglass box is trans- parent on all sides and mounts to a wall. It first premiered at the ‘Defining Form’ exhibition at The Untitled Space in 2018 and went on to be featured in the Artwalk NY 2018 Benefit Exhibit and Auction. The limited edition of this piece is available in pink and violet. Even when she’s relaxing, Indira likes to paint. “I love working in watercolour and Indian ink, and it calms me down to make artwork. Aside from that, I love cycling and just being out in nature.” She revealed she really loves the work of English artist Tracey Emin, who is known for her autobiographical and confessional artwork. Just like Indira, Emin produces work in a variety of mediums including drawing, painting, sculpture, film, photography, neon text and sewn appliqué. The late French-American artist Louise Bourgeois who produced large scale sculpture and installation art is another icon that Indira admires. To aspiring artists, Indira would say, “Believe in yourself! I always tell people if everyone likes your artwork then it probably isn’t very good. Don’t be afraid to be different. It’s great to be multifaceted and experimental and you should never hold yourself back from expressing new ideas.” Always the entrepre- neurial and creative lady she is, it’s not surprising that the artist has quite a few projects coming up. “I have been selected to represent the state of New York for HERFLAG2020, a nationwide initiative which commemorates 100 years of Women’s Suffrage, with a female artist representing each of the 36 states that ratified the 19th Amendment.” The ceremony held on 17th July in Albany saw Indira’s artwork sewn onto a massive 30-foot flag. She also had her artwork featured at the annual Water- mill Centre Benefit in July which was founded by Robert Wilson. “They will be auditioning off two of my neon ‘Pandora Box’ sculptures to raise money for their foundation. It’s always one of my favourite art events of the year, and I’m honoured to have my artwork raise money for such a good cause.” As well as this, she will be launching an initiative called Art4Equality this autumn that will raise funds for more women to be featured at global art fairs, and has a few exhibits coming up at The Untitled Space. We look forward to seeing more work from the sensational and multitalented Indira Cesarine. https://indiracesarine.com Images courtesy of Indira Cesarine