Leaf Totem II
Mrinalini Mukherjee Indian
Not on view
While Mukherjee is primarily known for her fiber sculptures, she started working with ceramics in the mid-1990s and produced a group of large scale ceramic works after a residency at the European Ceramic Work Centre in 's-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands, from which Leaf Totem II hails. The ceramics affirm nature as Mukherjee’s prime source of inspiration. Leaf Totem II is an unglazed black work, in which a central shaft is covered in a profusion of petal florets, subtly cloaking an upright phallic-like form. The central base emphasizes itself and resembles a lingam—a cylinder with a rounded top that is a common abstract symbol of Shiva. An unabashedly erotic work, it is consistent with Mukherjee’s other suggestive forms in which an inventive iconography communicates irrepressible growth.