Vishwa Shroff b. 1980

Shroff has been interested in windows, throughout her artistic practice. This interest was triggered by her reading of Ursula Le Guin’s novel Dispossessed which opens with “Like all walls it was ambiguous, two-faced. What was inside it and what was outside it depended upon which side of it you were on” – It is a quote that has stayed with her throughout her practice and she repeatedly plays with this idea, as well as looking at the window as a framing device. In Aperture, Shroff chooses windows that are outlines by stucco relief which is perhaps the most commonly visible on windows, in London, in Basel, in Bombay. These windows could be anywhere and it is this universality that Shroff wants to emphasise. These are drawings of the many windows the artist encountered as a voyeur, only noting their open and closed blinds, as an indication of the lives behind them. Each window work is drafted with silverpoint, and the minimal lines are enhanced with the bright ink used to colour the blinds.