Pause.

Series B is then a doorway to their present and future selves. In recovery from burnout, Vedanti unlearnt every impulse from the corporate world of Berlin and cultivated an artistic practice inspired by intentional living. By being present in every moment they inhabit, they created their own pace of life, which allowed them to balance ambition with rest. 

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Pause. is, therefore, also a protest, a denouncement of capitalist systems holding you ransom into overcompensation and a temporal experience built out of artificial insufficiency.

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Vedanti inadvertently lulls the viewer to pause, to participate and to collaborate in this peaceful moment of introspection. The strategic placement of the artwork on the infrastructure provided by 3 Art House, that is, around a descending staircase, facilitates a shift from passively gazing at the art to actually pausing and being actively impacted by it. 

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That also forms the crux of this series — the focus here is on the experience of the moment and not an object found within it. In Series A, Vedanti’s process involved finding and curating the items, displacing them from their first context, and ultimately, arranging them in synchronised patterns. On the other hand, in Series B, their methodology consists of capturing a moment in a photograph, revisiting and preserving it through assemblage. This transition is especially apparent in the first set of artworks from this series through the insertion of disparate elements like copper wires or pressed flowers and leaves. 

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In Kolkewadi, a pavement, blackened at the edges, weather-worn and age-torn, is inundated with rainfall — a sight typical of the monsoons of Maharashtra’s Konkan region. On the water falls light, gaining brightness by the second. Vedanti precisely creates drops of rain atop the dried leaves, leaves which almost blend into the pavement background. The monsoon seemed fleeting, but it left behind the memory of a single raindrop.

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Simple rest stops are scattered Along the Konkan Coast, perhaps even in the vicinity of Kolkewadi. Equipped with basic Maharastrian road-trip snacks, grimy floors, and perpetually leaking water basins, they are seldom aesthetically pleasing. During a halt at such a rest stop, Vedanti observed as a sudden burst of evening light transformed the space, leaving the floor resplendent. To this, they added bougainvillaea petals, pressed and preserved with utmost care, pink in colour to match the hint of it behind the wash basin column. Even the starkest of corners have their moments in brightness. 

Delicate red blooms and drenched twigs loiter on the soaked, gleaming ground  In Shindola, representative of the alchemy of water and sunlight. Here, Vedanti has placed copper wire, hand-twisted carefully to mimic the careless overlap of twigs in the photograph. The glint of the copper is reminiscent of the shine of the wet twigs, even as it leaves its shadowed mark on the piece.

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In the second set, by superimposing watercolour paintings on the photographs, Vedanti juxtaposes the reality of the moment with their remembrance of the details, enabling them to relish the interplay between shadows and light a little longer.

According to Vedanti, an artist’s observation skills are among their biggest strengths. Their own practice has been informed by their ability to pause and trace that elegant curve, to discern that slight but delicious variation in colour. Next to a waterfall in Sanjay Gandhi National Park, they found a patch of algae in all its multi-green glory resting atop an expanse of bark textured by time. Similarly, last monsoon, Vedanti encountered a wonderfully multicoloured leaf while walking in Fort, Mumbai — an object that brought them to a standstill. 

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These were stillnesses filled with the richness of Vedanti’s observations, enabling them to pause twice:  while recording the moment in a photograph, then recreating the patch of moss and the leaf with watercolours. 

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In Baner is a watercolour curtain is gently swaying against a sunlit window. On the next wall hangs an assemblage of a mirror on a metal cupboard, typical of Indian households. A pattern of the window within the patch of sunshine. From the depths of your comprehension, a pattern emerges: the late afternoon sunlight that streams in from the window falls onto the cupboard with its mirror.  Yet again, you pause.

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At home, the mirror is a witness. 

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A witness to a woman placing a बिंदी at the perfect spot in the middle of her forehead.

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A witness to her plucking the बिंदी from its spot — slightly above the gap between their eyebrows — and sticking it next to the mirror.

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A witness to surreptitious glances, to moments of vanity, to mere seconds of care allowed to women as they rush through chores, work and more.

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With its intentional placement, Vedanti invites visitors transiting through the space to pause and view themselves. 

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Take a moment to witness and be witnessed, then continue with the intention that carried you down the stairs.

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The show is currently on view at 3 Art House in Khar, Mumbai. The last day to view the show is June 30, 2026. Prices on request.

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— Maitreyee Mhatre