Mountains and Molehills by Zai Divecha

Mountains and Molehills explores themes of loss, impatience, and grief. Many works feature objects that have been piled on top of one another, echoing the heaviness and weight of heartache. For Divecha, the methodical, repetitive nature of creating these pieces was a form of meditation and comfort. The monochromatic white sculptures allow for introspection as light and shadow shift while experiencing their precise folds. Many works feature motifs of mounds, accumulations, and heaps and are arranged in an organic manner, as if scattered or stacked by nature or gravity.

Mountains and Molehills is a return to a more simple, methodical, and repetitive process for the artist. Divecha shows a slowed down process, leaning into the quieter and more therapeutic realm. It’s more analog in nature, grounded in inspiration from the natural world. Think of grains of sand piling up inside of an hourglass or rocks stacked one by one at a riverside. Divecha successfully captures how many natural elements tend to pile up, get weighed down, or shift very slowly through paper. Using a distinct shape or visual component, Divesha repeats the form to demonstrate a shift or cycle in its entirety or to signify the density of the collection.

This shift in approach was driven by circumstances in Divecha’s personal life with grief as the predominant sentiment she was working through when creating this show. The artist let her hands and heart take the lead because she felt called to create soothing and repetitive pieces, which was the salve she needed to confront this heavy chapter. Throughout history, numerous artists used their creative practice as a form of therapy. Divecha’s approach employs the purity of white reacting with space and light, inviting the viewer to contemplate their own emotional status in hopes of healing and clearing room for new memories. 

Zai Divecha (she/her) is a San Francisco-based artist whose work provides a quiet, calm respite from an overstimulating world. By folding, pleating or rolling sheets of white paper, she creates intricate patterns of light and shadow in both sculptures and stop-motion videos. Divecha has shown at Heron Arts, Marrow Gallery, the American Craft Council, and West Coast Craft; collectors include Letterform Archive, Twitter, Instagram, Square, and Google.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Heron Arts, 7 Heron Street, San Francisco, United States