Kaviya, who goes by the Instagram handle wallflowergirlsays, is a 28-year-old artist from India taking inspiration from unconventional themes in her everyday life.
Proudly reppin’ Mumbai, Kaviya’s artwork looks like that of an artistic professional, but her work started off as doodles during a corporate job she held.
She uses her own spin on the #100DaysOf hashtag being used all over Instagram to promote self-development and improvement challenges.
Through her own variation of the hashtag, #100DaysofDirtyLaundry, Kaviya draws comparison from her photos of everyday life to the lives of all of us; the good, the bad, and the so-very-ugly.
“The thing is life in itself is meaningless. It is us humans who invent meaning and then wage wars over our invented stories. The things we believe in – religion, materialism, capitalism, relationships, pop culture, nationalism, work ethics, ideologies, EVERYTHING is just colourfully imagined ‘stories’ we humans tell ourselves to make some sense of this grand confusion.
Katiya’s most notable pictures examine themes of existentialism. Through her pictures and meticulous captions, she questions the beliefs we’ve been taught, the way we live, the society we live in, the activism we stand for, the uncertainties we deal with in our everyday lives, and most of all, our mental instabilities.
“Stories – because they exist only in our collective minds; ask your dog what he thinks about having an existential crisis, he most likely doesn’t give a flying fuck. (Sapiens)”
Her inspiration is drawn from human flaws that we all experience. Kaviya scrutinizes her inner and outer self, a common practice we can all relate to.
She places a heavy focus on millennial relationships, technology, and social pressures. Her creativity comes from using her own experiences as a form of self-expression and championing.
“I have been questioned by my close ones as to what purpose sharing my dirty laundry to the world served. But I was, and I am still, convinced how art can be a powerful medium for opening uncomfortable but necessary conversations. Most issues we are grappling with as a generation—like loneliness, anxiety, depression—are because we are always told not to openly talk about such taboos. Why? Because then people would judge us. But I think the more unbiased conversations we have about such topics, the more normalised they become.”
“I have many times, during the project, deliberated on openly speaking about certain intense, difficult topics like sexuality, relationships, and fears because they felt fiercely personal to be shared online.”
Some of her work has darker themes, such as her last post titled Valar Morghulis (for all my GoT heads), where she scrutinizes the subject of death, as well as the 4 narratives she believes summarize the process of life.
We’re excited to see what she’ll be putting out at the end of her #100Days challenges, but we’re sure that Kaviya will continue to give us content that’s insightful as it is raw.
