‘Kenosis’ (2015) is a journey into nothingness, with a derivation from the Greek word ‘kenoo’, which means to empty. The heart, the most important organ in the body and the first to develop in a fetus as a sign of life, is the centre of ‘Kenosis’. Intervening technology with belief, Kurulkar found 3D printing to be a method that could dissect and analyse components that make us mortal. She worked with this technology to acquire a life-size terracotta model of her own heart. The terracotta heart was then submerged in water and an image was captured at regular intervals of disintegration. This led to a documented journey of the heart into nothingness in a series of fifteen selected images of framed time.

Unlike her earlier works where Kurulkar sheds the human form, here everything that identified her as human to others is erased. While ‘…5 Seconds Later’ was displayed in a continuous loop to signify rebirth and appear infinite, this recurrence does not take place in ‘Kenosis’. Shunning the need to regenerate, the artist focuses on the reconstruction that human anatomy endures and reflects on the shape shifting ability of human nature and time. Water and clay recur in ‘Kenosis’ from the artist’s earlier works – water, for its transient nature similar to that of life, and clay as a medium nearest to human skin. Water, often associated with religious rituals, becomes a medium of personal rituals for Kurulkar in her explorations of life. In ‘Kenosis’, water acts as the carrier of disintegrating, perishing, purging and dissolving the heart. The only remains of the time of the heart in water is an unrecognisable lump of red clay, with the residues of emotion, memory and time that the heart deposited on people and its relations when it was a form.

In a world that is constantly forcing information and images in front of us, how easy is it to maintain an eroding transient memory in its purity?

There is the inevitability of the temporary being the permanent constant in life, which is a cycle of continuous regeneration. It is not very easy to accept death and impermanence of the self. There is always a desire of ‘forever’, and knowing this is just a fantasy, leads to fear. In an attempt to reach a stage of acceptance and surrender, the artist puts forward her fear to the world, which she acknowledges through her works. She makes her body a transient medium in the hope that this fear will someday disappear.