Rithika Merchant
Empirical Study

Rithika Merchant’s intricate worlds weave together scientific, fictitious and mythological ideas to propose alternative futures and imaginary realms. Her illustrations incorporate Western science fiction tropes with concepts inherent in Eastern spiritual traditions. In doing so, she conjures a supernatural universe that challenges the techno-heroic imagery and narratives so often associated with space exploration. Her works look beyond stories of domination and conquest and seem to revel in spaces where learning, wisdom, searching, collectivity and the sacred are the binding and compelling forces.

For the Artspace Banner Series commission she has titled her work Empirical Study, suggesting the analytical, inductive and observational foundations of modern science. However, the Beings that populate Merchant’s universe expand into terrain well beyond the controlled environment of the lab and instead use their senses—taste, sight, touch, listening and smell—to gather and analyse data about the world, the cosmos and their relationship to one another.