This new window of sculptural works are studies in colour, pattern, and figuration simultaneously. They also mark the beginning of Soi’s working with a Khatambandhi craftsman; Khatambandh is a craft in which ceilings are panelled with wooden patterns. Tessellation, the art of making shapes fit to repeat in a pattern, runs in the craftsman’s blood.

Each block of Kashmiri fir is 30 cm in height and 3 inches thick, the thickest that can be cut by hand. The sandpapered face of the block is then coated with a mixture of powdered chalk mixed with clay from the river Jhelum that cuts through the city of Srinagar. The surface is smoothened by rubbing it with a flattened stone and then layered over with tissue paper sealed with saresh, a local glue used by craftsmen. This creates a rich, absorptive surface to paint upon. The motifs are painted on in gouache and sealed with matt UV varnish—the details in their making allow for the traces of the hand to reflect.

This new sculptural body also underlines Soi’s research into movements and artists whose works made bridges with craft traditions. In Bengal, the work of K.G. Subramanyan comes to mind. In the United Kingdom, the Arts and Crafts movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries is of importance to him. According to Soi, there is a social contract that ties figuration to pattern, and these new works are an articulation of such thinking.