Bound beyond the unfolding dreams of hidden daughters, where no earthly mind can enter by Tanvi Kant is a soft, floor-based sculpture, on display in the Bedchamber of Chiswick House.
It features a spiraling path of circular forms reflecting Lady Burlington’s cultivation of circles of friendships, family, and creativity together with her husband’s love for the geometric forms of classical architecture.
Artist Tanvi Kant said:
This project offered me the opportunity to respond to an unusual space within Chiswick House – the closet connected to the bedchambers. Only a few favoured people would have been invited into the closet as they were part of a small, trusted, and intimate circle. I was also interested by the way the building, based on classical architecture, purposefully restricted access from the exterior public area to the deeper intimate interior spaces, reflecting our exposed public selves and our deeper, private selves and psyche.
Tanvi’s work reflects on the last years of Lady Burlington’s life, when she slept alone in the red Bedchamber as a widow and having outlived all three of her daughters. It considers the connections of universality, emotion and the human experience that go beyond the grandeur of wealth and privilege.
Tanvi added:
Laying work on the ground is an act of humility. It also reflects the way thresholds, borders and sacred spaces are marked by geometric symbols in the art of ‘rangoli’ in my own Gujrati cultural heritage. The work I create considers how the human experience is collectively shared through globally diverse sacred spaces where symbols and metaphor through our age-old practices of ritual, art, and design flow into material form.
Bound beyond the unfolding dreams of hidden daughters, where no earthly mind can enter is in the Bedchamber and is included in admission for Chiswick House and Kitchen Garden. Open Thursday-Sunday, 11am-4pm), until 1 October 2023. Book tickets.
About Tanvi Kant
Tanvi is a multi-disciplinary artist from London, now based in Hastings. Repurposing reclaimed textiles, Tanvi has been practising elemental hand techniques for over 15 years, creating jewellery and more recently collage. Her intricate textile jewellery is made by transforming unwanted saris and dressmaking off-cuts through wrapping, coiling, knotting, and stitching. Her hand-cut pasted and stitched collage work layers magazine images with her own drawings, paintings, and stitched fabrics. Both her jewellery and collage works explore colour-inspired, tactile, and organic forms.
She studied sustainable design and practice at the University of Derby establishing her award-winning jewellery in 2005 and later extended the participatory side of her practice at the Royal College of Art in 2013. Tanvi has extensive experience of working with the public and community groups aiming to help people uncover their own visual and tactile stories through materials and to support intergenerational learning experiences. She leads workshops in textile jewellery making, collage and participatory textile installations.
Her third solo exhibition of fine art prints from her debut collage work, is touring in public spaces across the London Borough of Hounslow (2022-2024). Tanvi’s jewellery has been internationally exhibited and is part of the public collection at Touchstones Rochdale Museum. Tanvi was also included in Alchemy, a British Council exhibition presented in six countries across the Middle East and has created a bespoke collection for British luxury brand Bamford.
Website: www.tanvikant.co.uk
Instagram: @tanvikant
The Heart of Design is kindly supported by Art Fund and The Linbury Trust.
