Usha Seejarim creates minimalist and sculptural installations and works that often revolve around themes of labor and exploitation, functionality, and domesticity. With fine sensitivity, she transforms everyday household objects into highly aesthetic artworks. Through these works, she explores the conditions and harsh realities of daily labor performed by women.

For her reinterpretation of ordinary and domestic objects, she uses materials such as clothespins, safety pins, wooden pegs, irons, and brooms. These works are clearly influenced by Dadaism. Her compositions arise from repetitive acts of mark-making that allude to themes related to time, chance, space, displacement, and exploitation. They also address the use and value of tools and the daily rituals of the household.

Her Indian heritage influences her use of certain materials such as pigment and ash. Her works are often deliberately crafted to undergo change, reflecting the transient nature of human existence. The central importance of impermanence in many Indian belief systems further emphasizes Seejarim's interest in this theme. The juxtaposition of everyday objects with precious or sacred materials like pigments makes her exploration even more moving and accessible.

Artistic expressions from various cultural contexts offer new perspectives on how meanings are constructed. Signs and symbols are subject to different interpretations that affect us in unique ways, while at the same time touching on universally human and understandable themes. Seejarim's work often emerges from ritual repetition and humility and is shaped both by her urban environment in Johannesburg and by her background as a person of Indian descent growing up in South Africa.

Usha Seejarim's works are a creative exploration of meaning-making as an individual, sensory-physical process, always influenced by sociocultural factors. Sensory experiences evoke associations and memories, highlighting the physicality of our understanding and emphasizing that meaning-making is a continuous process.

Cultural identity is neither fixed nor essential; rather, it is constantly renegotiated through various cultural and social processes. Her work promotes an alternative approach to culture, language, and forms of representation, advocating for openness, ambiguity, and multiple interpretations.

The play with meaning, the construction and reconstruction of dominant narratives, and the questioning of fixed meanings are societal processes that are often particularly visible in diasporic communities. Artistic positions engage with the diversity of meanings and interpretations associated with cultural symbols, traditions, and identities in their works.

Dr. Kirstin zu Hohenlohe

The title "Between the kitchen" refers to the often overlooked moments and tasks that exist "between" the visible aspects of life—especially the invisible work in the household, typically performed by women. These tasks are a crucial part of daily life, yet they rarely receive the recognition they deserve.

The title also reflects Usha Seejarim's artistic approach, in which she reinterprets everyday functional objects like brooms and pegs. Her works emerge from this "in-between" space—between the mundane and the aesthetic, the visible and the invisible.