The Open Studio / Narender
Narender
War of mentality and hair
Small bodies wrestle across the dark heart of a tree
A slab of wood opens like a cloud with torn edges.
In its dark centre, pale bodies grapple and fall.
Yellow beasts lower their heads and pull on thin lines.
Gold discs hang in the air like small suns.
A crack runs through the middle of the fight.
The bark holds it all, quiet and brown.
The work
Narender paints in oil straight onto a slab of wood. The slab keeps its natural edge and its dark bark rim. Cracks run through the grain. On the darker heart of the wood small figures in white, orange and blue twist and struggle. Yellow animals crowd among them. Small gold discs float between them. The work measures 76.2 × 91.44 cm. Narender comes from Gurugram. He works in painting, sculpture, installation, photography and performance. His main subject is hair loss and how it affects a person's confidence.
In the artist’s words
“Through my art I show myself and people whose experiences are like mine. The main subject of my work is hair loss, its challenges and its solutions. I try to show how this problem affects me and people like me. In the end my work looks at how we can regain our confidence and face the challenges along the way.”
- Theme
- Hair loss and confidence
- Material
- Oil on wood
- Size
- 76.2 × 91.44 cm
- Year
- 2026
- Edition
- " the artist presents a visual documentation of psychological quagmires and deep-seated emotional wounds. Through his work, Narender captures his personal struggles with hair loss and the compounding anxieties surrounding it, mapping out the phases before, during, and after this transition. This series does not narrate a single, isolated traumatic event; rather, it chronicles the slow-drip psychological violence and years of continuous mental harassment that gradually hollow out a once-vibrant individual from within. When a person endures prolonged mental harassment over several years, the resilience of their soul and mind begins to crumble. Through this series, Narender captures that eerie stillness and profound transformation where a human being stands on the blurred, fragile line between sanity and chaos. The Visual Metaphor: Color and Form The choice of colors throughout the series meticulously reflects the shifting states of the human psyche. Grey, Dark Blue, and Green Layers: Represent suffocating isolation. Specifically, blue signifies a deteriorated mental state, while green acts as a visual metaphor for a "slow poison" gripping the mind. Red: Used intentionally to channel the deep agony and torment accumulated inside over the years.
- Framed
- Yes
- About the artist
- College
- From
- Gurugram
- Code
- RC-3796
